Rise of the Uzumaki
by Sky's Eternity
Summary: A name lost and near forgotten has returned as a threat begins to spread across the worlds. Only those that carry the name stand a chance against it. Male! Harems, NarutoPokemonHP x Multicrossover. Currently on a temporary Hiatus.
1. Letters

Summary: A name lost and near forgotten has returned as a threat begins to spread across the worlds. Only those that carry the name stand a chance against it. Slash! Harem and Multicrossover

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto/Naruto: Shippuuden belonging to Kishimoto, Pokemon belonging to GameFreak and Satoshi Taijiri, Harry Potter belonging to JK Rowling, and any other fandom being used in this fic rightfully belong to their respected owners so please support the official release.

Warnings: Multicrossovers, Major slash! Slash! Harems, swearing, character death, violence, swearing, AU.

* * *

Chapter One: Letters

"We can no longer allow these anomalies to run rampantly!"

A loud bang pierced the air gathering murmurs of agreement amongst those present within the room. Many were displeased and worried about the events that had begun to transpire. The clan had been overlooking disasters occurring for nearly two decades, and ignoring events which could have resulted in the destruction of not one world, but several. These mere details had not granted the Grand-Elder much favor with the rest of the clan.

"I understand your concern; however, we must not abandon procedure!" The elderly man reminded smoothly. His gaze was unwavering and glimmered sympathetically. "This is the way we have done things for many years now. And, we have only just re-established the pathways-"

"ONLY BECAUSE OF THOSE KAMI-FORSAKEN KUMOGAKURE BASTARDS!" The young man from the far side of the room roared angrily. His teeth clenched tightly and his hands were balled into fists; shaking violently. The man's eyes focused upon the desk in front of him. "Because of them we were forced to settle deep into the Void! Separated and scattered widely into the worlds! Tell me this Grand-Elder, are you willing to wait another decade to do something? To let these anomalies spread even further, possibly allowing them to kill our clansmen?"

"I must admit, Head Wataru-sama does bring up a valuable argument; Grand-Elder." A young woman with long, faded blue hair stated respectfully. Pressing her lips together she kept her gaze on the Grand-Elder as she gathered the courage to continue. "It seems to me that if we do not act quickly, these anomalies might become too strong for us to even stand a chance against! We are all very aware that not all the pathways have been fixed; but I believe that now it is the time to begin re-gathering our clansmen. Power comes in numbers, Grand-Elder, I firmly believe that if we do this, that the reconstruction of the pathways will go much faster and we would finally able to discover the cause of these anomalies!"

The Grand-Elder folded his hands together. "Perhaps," inclining his head. "That being said, Ibuki-dono, I wonder. Is the reason you and Head Wataru-sama bring this to our attention because of the temporal-spatial disturbance from three months ago? Or it because of Head Wataru-sama's son?"

The whole room instantly went silent. No one dared to move or speak watching apprehensively at the three while the air began to cool slowly.

"You!" Ibuki hissed ferociously, eyes narrowed into a glare. "After all Wataru has done and been forced to do for you-!"

"That is enough, Ibuki." Wataru whispered calmly, hiding his expression beneath his bright red hair.

The woman complied with the request, looking defiant despite her silence.

"Grand-Elder, to say that I am not concerned or worried about my son and the lack of knowledge of his father... no, of his heritage, would be a downright lie. I am an honest man and I strive to speak the truth. I will freely admit my son does play apart in this matter for he is the one that prevented the temporal and spatial disturbance from falling into the wrong hands," Wataru spoke loudly. "I do believe it would be in our best interests into bringing him into the clan-"

"And your wife," The Grand-Elder interrupted giving him a look.

Wataru did not waver. "She is a competent Shinobi. Grand-Elder, you should know of this, you did after all wed us."

"That may be true. However, she has not been in battle for years," The Grand-Elder added.

"Regardless, she is a valuable member of this clan and former head of the T&I division," He argued coldly. "Or have you forgotten the War dating back several years when the clan first discovered and emerged in _that _world?"

The Grand-Elder remained silent for a long while. "What would your son bring to the clan, Head Wataru-sama?" He finally spoke, leaning back against his chair. "From the information provided to us, he knows nothing about our clan or his abilities. I fail to see what he would be able to bring to the table."

Wataru did not reply instantly, taking his time to think over the Grand-Elder's words and taking them seriously. After several moments of silence he had his answer. "Grand-Elder, my son has provided himself to be a potential taijutsu specialist, probably even surpassing Konoha's former specialist and current one; while he is not trained and currently kept in ignorance, I can easily remedy that myself."

Before the Grand-Elder could reply another member grained attention. "Head Wataru-sama, how old is your son?"

"He's turning sixteen Elder," Wataru replied, becoming puzzled by the calculative posture from the man. "Elder?"

"Hmmm strange," The elder murmured clearly. "Wataru and Hanako's son is turning sixteen… at the same time that Lady Kushina's and Yuriko's sons would also be turning fifteen."

"That can't be possible! Lady Kushina was never married!" One of the clansman remarked. "If she had been we would have known-"

"Then tell me this; where is the Kyuubi?" The Elder questioned, watching as the man fell silent. "Just because we have only recently fixed the pathways does not mean we are unable to keep up with the times. The elders, myself included, have kept a close eye on our home world. Because of this, we have heard whispers of a young boy that goes by the name Naruto and carries the clan name of Uzuamki."

"How do you know of this Elder?" Wataru questioned, genuine curious. "And what of Lady Yuriko's child?"

Ibuki's eyes started to race quickly, fleeting through her memories before they widened. "You used fuuinjutsu in order to build a communication receiver to keep track of those that carry and locate anyone the breaths a word of 'Uzumaki' in our home world and gave Lady Yuriko one as well!"

"That is correct Ibuki-dono, however, the one I gave to Yuriko, was a...smaller and less powerful seal than the one I used for the home world." The elder admitted, and paused. "She was caught in one of the explosions that separated many of our kin."

Too much concentrated chakra clashing against sealing arrays erupted and tore through the fabrics of time and space straight towards the Void; others separated through the cracks during the confusion and disarray. The attack had taken all of Uzushirogakure by surprise, when they had realized what had happened; it had been nearly far too late for them to react.

Thankfully, unbeknownst to those outside of the clan, they had been granted the power and the duty given them to Rikudo Sannin as Guardians of Time and Space. It was the very reason the Uzmaki had left their Senju cousins centuries ago, settling on the island of Uzushio. If the fuuinjutsu masters were to observe objectively then they could not be bound so closely to day to day matters in any of the worlds under their purview. The clans task included overseeing and protecting innocents from threats to several worlds, and more specifically in their home world; keeping a close eye upon the Senju and Uchiha clans. Despite wanting to trust the two lines descending from the Rikudo the man was aware of the animosity that had always existed between them. It had come as a surprise when the Senju had all but disappeared with no visible action from the Uchiha clan, but as it had appeared to be from mundane events the Uzumaki were forced to watch the younger line of their founder slowly fade from existence.

"So what do we do then?" Ibuki brought up. "If this boy and Lady Yuriko's children are alive, and now we have access to their pathways-"

"Only just," Grand-Elder informed, seriously. "We still do not know if either are stable."

"So should we leave them?" Wataru prompted, his fatherly instincts kicking in. "If they are clansmen than it is in our duty as a family to bring them here and train them-"

"And what if they are happy where they are?" Grand-Elder said, frowned thinly. "Would you honestly tear them away from their homes?"

Wataru bit his lip, swallowing quietly. "I... have thought about that Grand-Elder. But, as you may be aware, as close of an ally Konoha may be, their shinobi are not exactly mentally stable nor as open minded as the rest of our people. There is no doubt in my mind that if this Naruto is indeed related to Lady Kushina, and a Konoha Shinobi himself, he must be the current jinchuuriki of Kyuubi. There would be no other option available to them."

"And Yuriko's child?"

"I would assume that he is currently being trained to be as fit as a normal Shinobi can be," He answered, recalling how Yuriko used to be as a child; happy and intelligent, practically sucking up Fuuinjutsu lessons like a sponge. The girl had been far too intuitive and intelligent to simply forget about her home and family.

Grand Elder glanced at the other Elders. "Then, Head Wataru-sama, what would you have use do?"

"With permission from the Elder Council, I would like to send a summoning letter to those of the Uzumaki clan that are located in the worlds we have access to," Wataru began. "I understand that this too may cause some disturbance, especially in Konoha. It can be avoided provided we send them back at the exact same time and place that they left."

"It doesn't sound too complicated," another elder remarked musing thoughtfully. "Unfortunately the second part may be difficult to pull off without the necessary chakra and sealing arrays."

Wataru nodded. "I understand, Elder."

"It seems that I am outvoted," The Grand-Elder surmised noticing the other clansmen and elders steadily agreeing towards Wataru's line of thinking. "Very well then, you have permission from the Elders."

A large cheer exploded in the room as Wataru let loose a sigh of excited relief; his shoulders slumping as his body started to relax. He had gained approval from the Elders and his fellow clansman, now the only thing to be done was carry out his plan. Wataru managed to pull himself from his thoughts to address the elders as they made their way out greeting and congratulating him on winning his case, not that he had had any doubt of his success. For Uzumaki, family always came first and foremost. Though it definitely helped that Ibuki had backed him up.

Even though she looked ready to spit out fire, if there was one thing Ibuki didn't like; it was when her family was being targeted so she was bound to be pleased with the Elders decision.

"Well it looks like we won," He said cheerfully to her.

Ibuki frowned. "So we have."

Obviously something was bugging his cousin and frankly, it wasn't difficult to figure out what it was. Bemused, he gestured down the hall deciding to go somewhere more private to continue their conversation.

"Let me guess," Wataru began, slipping into his chair after they'd situated themselves in the privacy of his rooms. "You're concerned."

She nodded briskly. "How do you plan on pulling this summoning letter off? Just switching between the worlds take too much power as it is, you know that as well as I do!"

Wataru could definitely understand her concern, summoning of any kind took a great deal of Chakra from the user. Her reasoning was sound. It wasn't as if he hadn't anticipated that problem and made measure to counteract it; it merely took a few sealing arrays here and there, and help from a friend.

"Well?" Ibuki demanded, tapping her fingers on her arm looking annoyed.

"Listen Ibuki, you don't have to worry about it alright? I won't be doing this by myself," He reassured her gently, and removed himself from the seat to move towards her. Wataru placed his hands placed on her shoulders, staring at her calmly. "Just trust me. I've been studying and preparing for this for years, everything is fine."

"...Then why aren't you upset?" She questioned.

The red haired man knew what she had been referring to. "I am upset, Clair." Using her English name to convey truth in it. "But whining like a child won't solve anything, action needs to be taken. I wasn't about to let my emotions run loose like that."

"I still don't like it," Ibuki/Clair retorted.

"And you don't have to," Wataru agree, shrugging his shoulders.

Ibuki/Clair continued to eye him with an unreadable look for several moments, shaking her head fondly. "Lance, you're crazy."

"Of course I am, I'm an Uzumaki!" Wataru/Lance said striking a pose.

"Dork!"

Wataru/Lance grinned.

"So how are you planning to do this anyway?" Ibuki was really curious know. "I remember you said you're getting help pulling this off, who is it?"

Wataru/Lance's grin slipped into a feral smile. "You don't have to worry about that, Ibuki. Just leave everything to me, c'mon. I'm hungry, let's go and get something to eat." Before she was able to protest, his arm draped upon her shoulder guiding her outside of the room.

Two purple eyes flashed brightly as the room went black behind them.

* * *

Uzumaki Naruto sighed wearily as he walked through the busy streets of Konoha. His team had managed to save Gaara from those Akatsuki freaks, though it had come at the price of old lady Chiyo's life. The extraction of Shukaku from Gaara's body had drained his friend's life force, effectively killing him in the process. Fortunately, they had arrived just in time for the old hag to save his life by exchanging it with her own; once again, the reality of being a Shinobi had left a bitter taste in his mouth. Losing another person in such a senseless way had hit him hard and while he and the old hag hadn't exactly been close or known each other long, the mere idea that someone as healthy as the old hag had been forced to sacrifice herself in order to save another person! It made him angry. He didn't understand why they couldn't do anything more!

Late coming as it may be her death had made Naruto realize just how ill prepare he was a Shinobi. Jiraiya, despite helping him understand the flow of his and Kyuubi's chakra, along with mastering the Yondaime's Ransengan had taught him nothing else. Those skills he'd left Konoha with two years ago were still the only ones he knew. Naruto truly hadn't learned or improved on anything during his time with the man. In fact the only difference between the 'him' now and the 'him' from back then was in height and sharpened instincts. His skill set was the same and everything else was still sloppy. The rest of his friends seemed even more light years ahead of him now than they had back then.

It was frustrating! It felt like the last two years that Naruto had spent with Ero-Sennin was a complete and total waste! The test between him and Sakura against Kakashi-sensei had been humiliating; both of his teammates had improved so much while he was still stuck spamming Kage Bunshin and throwing wild haymakers. In the end he'd only beat the juunin by taking advantage of his ridiculous perversions.

Unfortunately for Naruto and his drive to improve, Kakashi-sensei was out of commission, due to Chakra exhaustion. Thus, he was teacher-less once again. In retrospect, as much as Naruto respected and liked the man, Hatake Kakashi was not teacher material no matter how much the man tried. He just couldn't teach. Not that he could blame the man; his social skills were almost as horrible as Naruto's own. So he'd forgive him, to an extent.

The only person that Naruto trusted to not steer him the wrong way was Iruka-sensei. While the man was rather annoyingly protective of him, deep down he was aware that the man meant well. Iruka-sensei even went as far as to protest against his superiors when he felt Naruto was being put in a situation beyond his abilities. He had heard many whispers from Izumo and Kotetsu that Iruka had spoke up against the Jounin's admission to the Chuunin exams.

It occurred to Naruto that if they had listened to Iruka, then none of this would have happened. The pedophile snake bastard wouldn't have bitten Sasuke, leading him to willingly be manipulated by the strange hickey on his neck to go to Orochimaru for power. They had dismissed him because of his 'low' status of Chuunin and that they were 'no longer' the same children that had been under his care. He often wondered if this was common within the Shinobi ranks; Chuunins being looked down upon by the higher ups.

Still, Iruka knew his stuff. And he was ashamed to admit that it had taken him this long to realize that. Naruto felt guilty for not listening to him when he was younger. Which was why he was currently standing just outside of the Academy ready to plead for help from the level headed teacher.

"Here it goes," Naruto gulped looking at the school and strode in calmly. If there was any place he didn't want to be the Academy would be it, too many bad memories of his childhood lingered there. The days where he watched children being picked up by their parents as he was left waiting for someone, anyone to come and take him home; showering him with love and affection. He had eventually gotten his desire from Iruka, but the scars were still there.

That was in the past, Naruto told himself, pushing the painful memories aside as he allowed his eyes to wander around the courtyard watching the young ones train. The genin smiled a bit at how clumsy and hyper they kids were, had he been like that as a child? He couldn't remember.

Catching the sight of the brunet haired teacher, Naruto darted his way over towards Iruka-sensei and grinned widely as he heard the instructions from Iruka being shouted to the kids as they began to spread out. The Chuunin shook his head in a fond manner.

"Having fun Iruka-sensei?"

The brunet didn't seem too surprised, though he turned sharply and smiled. "Naruto!"

"The munchkins giving you trouble, Iruka-sensei?" Naruto joked walking toward the man.

"They aren't munchkins Naruto, just young." Iruka admonished teasingly, his eyes softening upon seeing him. "How have you been?"

Naruto sighed, looking directly into Iruka's eyes. "Well..."

The blond haired boy slowly began to tell Iruka about his mission to Suna; first facing an imitation of Uchiha Itachi and being completely overwhelmed by the Genjutsu and only being able to break free with the help of the others. Then he went into detail about his battle against that bomb art freak- Deidaria from Iwa- alongside Kakashi-sensei, successfully killing him while Sakura and the old hag managed to dispatch Sasori. Finally, he told Iruka about the death and sacrifice of Gaara and Chiyo.

The look of compassion and understanding in Iruka's eyes made him feel better for talking about it. Naruto realized that it was alright to feel the way he did and was happy that someone understood him. As his tale came to an end Naruto noticed that Iruka hadn't said anything... and he felt grateful for the man letting him rant his way through the whole story.

Gripping the fabric of his pants tightly and pushing away the feelings of anger and childishness inside of him Naruto got to his reason for seeking the man out. "Iruka-sensei, I... I felt completely useless. I couldn't do anything at all. I only know Rasengan and Kage Bunshin, and they were both useless in the fight! I don't know what to do; can you help me?"

"I don't know if I can be of help, but I'll try." Iruka answered truthfully, stroking the scar on his nose with a thoughtful look. "Well you could always focus on your Chakra control more," smiling cheerfully at the pout. "And your taijutsu could probably use a little work. Hmm… if you want to learn a few more Ninjutsu knowing your nature affinity could come in handy, what element is it?"

Naruto stared. "I know I could use some taijutsu help- I was thinking of finding Bushy Brows and asking him about those weights he wears- but what isNature affinity?"

"Elemental Chakra," Iruka replied slowly and saw the blank stare. Obviously neither Kakashi and Jiraiya-sama had mentioned or bothered to teach him anything about Elemental chakra. Feeling rather annoyed, he pushed the feeling back as he went over to his desk and pulled out a slip of paper. "Every Shinobi has an elemental affinity to their chakra; Fire, Water, Wind, Lightning or Earth. Some Shinobi have more than one, though it's rare and usually only seen in bloodlines."

Naruto slowly nodded; a little lost. "Haku..."

"I'm sorry?"

"During my mission to Wave, there was this boy that had a Kekkai Genkai; he could create ice." Naruto explained, frowning. "Is that elemental Chakra?"

Iruka nodded. "A Kekkai Genkai allowing the combination of both Wind and Water Chakra."

"What's your Element, Iruka-sensei?"

"My Chakra elements are Fire and Earth," Iruka answered truthfully, sheepishly scratching his cheek.

Naruto grinned. "That's awesome Iruka-sensei! Do you think I'll have two affinities?"

"Maybe," Iruka shrugged as he placed the paper into Naruto's hand. "Now place it in between your fingers and focus your chakra to it. The paper will tell you which elemental chakra you have; a cut is wind, burn is fire, wet is water, crumbling is earth and wrinkled is lightning."

The blonde's grin spread across his face, obviously eager to discover what element he had. Closing his eyes as the paper was placed in between his fingers, Iruka sat and watched his former student fondly. He felt the boy's chakra slowly rise centring upon the paper.

_Swish._

The paper had been cut through the middle.

"So your chakra element is wind," Iruka announced chuckling. "I should have known, you were always the offensive type. Wind Chakra is known as the best type of element to use in combat," the teacher explained, seeing Naruto's confused look. Iruka chuckled it changed to happiness. "Unfortunately, the only Wind user I know of is Asuma. I suggest going to find him, he should be able to help you more than I."

"That's not true Iruka-sensei, you've been a huge help!" The blonde cried, thrusting his fists up energetically. "I wouldn't have known about this elemental Chakra stuff without you telling me, so thanks Iruka-sensei... for everything," smiling at the man before rushing towards the window and out of it. Naruto turned back to see Iruka smile at him ruefully and laughed.

Finding Asuma-sensei wouldn't be too hard; wherever Shikamaru was so too Asuma-sensei was bound to be… or alongside Kurenai-sensei, Naruto thought chuckling to himself. Naruto wondered if the man had finally asked her out yet. It was so obvious that they had something going on and had good chemistry, everyone could see it was bound to happen!

Naruto just needed to actually find Shikamaru or Kurenai, or anyone from Team Ten. Chouji was probably at one of the restaurants his clan owned, Ino was likely to be at the flower shop and Shikamaru... his mind raced trying to think of where his friend should be. Shikamaru was a Nara to the core; genius but incredibly lazy and where would a lazy person be?

"At his house!" Naruto cried out loud, jumping to the rooftops to shorten his travel time.

Just as he said those words a piece of paper blocked his sight, blinding him as he fumbled over the edge of a roof, spiralling downwards for his face to meet the ground painfully.

The blond moaned loudly, feeling the stings of pain shock his system from the collision to the ground. However, it was quickly ignored as his eyes saw his name written in black ink upon the piece of white paper. With a curious look, Naruto began to inspect it.

"Where did this come from and why does it have my name on it?" He asked out loud, unable to look away from it. A strange feeling in his stomach told him that the envelope was important to him in some manner, why he thought that Naruto didn't know and didn't care. Shoving it into his pocket, he moved towards his apartment to read the contents of the letter. His own curiosity had tempted him to open it up right there in public and read it, but he immediately dismissed the thought.

As childish as it sounded, he wanted to read it by himself where no prying eyes could see it.

The envelope was not custom made looking very regular and common, nothing special at all about it. On the back of it Naruto noted a strange stamp marked in what looked like to be an arrangement of seals of some sort, looking similar to the ones from Jiraiya's scrolls. And why had it been sent to him?

Unknown to Naruto, in two far away countries two others also received letters in a similar manner. A young girl with long red hair and glass located deep within a damp and dark dungeon was staring at the letter in surprise and wonder. Her hands held onto the letter shakily, as her smile betrayed her true feelings. She slid to the ground as tears of happiness poured down her face like a water fall.

The other was a tall man with spiky hair and a face filled with piercings and nails. He was far more expressionless than the other two, only his eyes gleamed with interest reading the contents of the letter with a beautiful woman with blue hair and a rose. No words were needed between them; they would follow the other without question. As long as they were together that was the only thing that truly mattered to them.

* * *

Harry didn't know what was more unusual; the fact that the Dursleys had willingly left in the house alone or the strange letter with his name on it. The letter had been mixed in with the recently arrived slips of parchment from Sirius, Ron and Hermione only he didn't recognize the writing. It seemed far too polished and refined to belong to anyone he knew; Harry had considered that it belonged to Dumbledore only he sincerely doubted the Headmaster would ever send him a letter.

He had been relieved to finally get mail, but, with the letters that his friends had sent him Harry wondered if it would have been better to be received nothing. The vagueness of their letters hadn't bothered him (much), rather the fact that they were together and he was forced to stay with the Dursleys irritated him. He felt betrayed and hurt.

Now they were pestering him, saying how concerned and worried they were for him because he hadn't written to them in a couple of weeks. At least with Sirius, Harry could understand that he was restricted from sending mail in fear of getting arrested or worse; receiving the kiss. Shuddering at how close he had been to being on the end of one, so he could forgive him. But Ron and Hermione, he wasn't so sure. He couldn't help feel that it was rather childish. However, Harry just couldn't help it.

His thoughts began to stray. They were not the only ones that knew his address.

Wormtail knew where he lived.

His boil ran cold and the green eyed boy turned mechanically towards the letter, lying on the table peacefully. Voldemort now had his blood flowing through his body. What was stopping the man from sending him a letter? It could bring Harry straight to him or worse; bring Voldemort straight to him. His knowledge of Portkeys was very limited and he only knew the basics of how they worked. Plus, the obsession that man had with killing the boy who lived, well, it wouldn't surprise him if the snake bastard used underhand and bizarre methods in order to get him.

But this wasn't Voldemort's style. He preferred using subtly and manipulation in order to carry out his goals.

Since he had survived the ritual at the Graveyard and the lack of information of destruction or mysterious deaths appearing in the Daily Prophet, odds were Voldemort and his Death Eaters were laying low. Probably due to the fact he never anticipated that Harry would manage to escape, spoiling his plans. Logically, starting random killings here and there would only hinder that bastard's plan more than aid, with Fudge being so heavy in denial and vehemently going out of his way to say that Cedric's murder was an _accident_helped the Death Eaters.

Because of that and the sad fact that the British Wizarding World was so easily swayed by the press, Harry knew that they would believe every single thing that Fudge told the Daily Prophet to write allowing Voldemort to rebuild his forces and prepare for a surprise attack.

It made the black haired teen wonder if their side was really doing anything; or if those that believed Voldemort was back were sitting back as well.

"I don't know what to do Hedwig," Harry stated, eyes stayed on the strange letter. "I don't recognize the writing."

The snowy owl's head titled, staring at her wizard and sensing the troubled feelings he was giving off. Obviously her human was concerned about that snake man that plagued his dreams nearly every night, and was responsible for the near death of the boy several times over. Understanding her human's fears over the letter Hedwig began to inspect it, refusing to believe she could have brought such a dangerous letter or item to her human.

It was simply unthinkable!

Harry watched curiously as Hedwig stared at the letter, picking it up by her talons and lifting it towards eye level while bending down in order to gain a good look for her to stare at intensely. His owl looked at both sides of the letter, before hooting approvingly dropping it back onto the table and flying back over to his side.

"So the letter is okay then?" Harry asked her, petting Hedwig gently.

The owl gave him a look and hooted lowly, as it trying to say '_you doubt me_'?

"Sorry girl, I'm just trying to be careful," He murmured gently to Hedwig smiling at the maternal gleam within her eyes. "You don't want me to be whisked off somewhere do ya?"

Hedwig hooted again, shaking her head firmly.

"Okay, okay!" Harry chuckled at how overprotective Hedwig sounded to him. "So who do you think the letter is from Hedwig?" Upon receiving another look from his owl, Harry sighed. "Right, of course I should check myself," Getting up from the bed to move towards the table, he gazed at the letter feeling curiosity build up inside. Too much had happened to him over the past few years for him to simply open it; Harry needed to be cautious and alert, and while he knew Hedwig would never lead him astray… it was better to be safe than sorry.

Taking a deep breath, the teen's hand shakily moved forward to touch the letter skimming it with his fingers before he grasped the letter. The green eyed boy turned it over to see a strange emblem holding the back down; it reminded Harry strangely of Hogwarts. He proceeded to open it and the letter unfolded as he did so.

Harry's eyes took in the letter's contents, his arms went weak and fell to his sides. Taking in the contents of the letter slowly a strange feeling formed in the pit of the boy's stomach as his throat ran dry and he began to shake. It felt similar to when Sirius had offered him a home... a place away from the Dursleys; only it was different, he couldn't describe it fully and was barely able to identify it. Either way, he found himself content with it.

Swallowing slowly, tears began to roll down his cheeks as a happy smile stretched across his face.

This was his ticket out of here, Dumbledore be damned.

* * *

He had made it to the top four of the Sinnoh League.

Going up against Tobias had been an ordeal forcing him to use Pokemon that had a great deal experience and strength in order to counteract the power of the Darkrai Tobias had. Ash expected that taking down the Legendary would be extremely difficult, unfortunately he hadn't anticipated that the other man would have another legendary; one that he never thought he'd see again. In fact, upon seeing it emerge from the Pokeball, Ash could have sworn that his blood had frozen over. It just seemed completely and utterly impossible for _that _Pokemon to be with Tobias. But Ash knew that it was true.

Latios. The male half of the Eon Duo.

Ash still remembered that day. The memory would forever be carved deep into his mind. Now, it wasn't that Ash had never experienced death before but, seeing it happen before your very eyes was a totally different story.

Ash hadn't had time to dwell upon it and decided to attack head on. In the end, Tobias managed to beat him as Pikachu and Latios collided together for the final confrontation, with Pikachu fainting. Despite the fact that he hadn't advanced to the finals the battle between him and the other man had been exhilarating with one unexpected turn after another. Ash filed the memory away as one of the battles he would remember for the rest of his life. Still, he was deeply concerned with how Tobias managed to capture both Darkrai and Latios. Ash could tell that the man was a good sort but he wasn't so sure that he was comfortable that two legendaries were in the hands of a single man.

Humans were not ready for that type of power. No one was. However, Ash was certain that Cynthia and the other Sinnoh Elites were keeping a close eye on him. That he did not doubt. Tobias, was still an unknown, thus it would make sense for the League to let Tobias into the tournament; in order to gauge his threat level and if necessary eliminate him.

Ash was neither a fool nor naive. No matter what people might say, Ash wasn't stupid to dismiss a possible threat especially with his history of going up against maniacs like Hunter J, the terrorist organizations, and many other villains that sought power they didn't deserve. Thankfully, some of them such as Maxine from Team Magma, Archie from Team Aqua and Saturn of Galactic managed to realize their mistakes. Granted, it took them until it was far too late to turn back but at least they were able to understand it.

The same could not be said about Cyrus and Team Rocket.

That being said, Ash didn't consider Team Rocker to be that big of a threat. With the exception of Giovanni and the upper level Rocket members; James, Jessie and Meowth plus Butch and Cassidy were nothing more then jokes. In fact, he often wondered if they were simply chasing after him because they were gluttons for punishment. Their schemes were half-baked and completely random pulling the same old trick over and over again to the point of desperation.

Either way, Team Rocket seemed to have realized that following him back home was a total mistake and stopped. Though seeing them getting their ass kicked by Mr. Mime again would definitely be hilarious.

Now that Ash thought about it Team Rocket hadn't turned up at the League to cause trouble, and left them alone afterwards as well. That struck the trainer as strange and he pondered if he should be worried or not, but being able to walk around without worrying about Pikachu or any of his Pokemon being taken away from him was definitely a load off his back. Plus, Ash was alone with the exception of Pikachu and his Pokémon to watch his back.

Brock and Dawn had both left a bit after the Sinnoh League had finished; Dawn headed straight for Hoenn in order to compete in the Hoenn contests while Brock had discovered his passion for medical practice, though Ash wasn't fully convinced that Nurse Joy hadn't had anything to do with it. However, he was glad that his friend was pursuing a career that he held an interest in and wanted to do. He only hoped that Brock wouldn't be burned out since his friend originally wanted to be a breeder. Being a Pokemon Doctor was similar to a breeder, just a step higher and it would be far more work and effort to achieve. Ash was certain that Brock would manage to meet his goal.

Dawn on the other hand... he wasn't quite sure. It wasn't that he didn't have faith in the girl nor did he think she was a horrible coordinator. Dawn had talent and good work ethic, her only problem was her lack of creativity and she had a short temper. She was slowly getting better about losing but she still had a long way to go, just like he had years back.

"Pikachu!" His electric partner chirped happily from his shoulder, breaking the trainer from his thoughts.

Ash glanced over and smiled. "Yeah, yeah. I know, don't worry buddy. I know where we're going, promise!"

Instead of returning to Kanto like he original planned so he could drop by to check on his Mom, Professor Oak and his other Pokemon Ash had opted to check out the Battle Zone in order to take on the Battle Tower. After all, Ash wanted to battle against Palmer again.

He wasn't heading there immediately though. Ash had faith that his Pokemon would be able to put up a good fight against the man, but he wanted to be prepared for anything this time around. Battling against Tobias had been his wake up call, he hadn't underestimated Tobias, but he needed to be devise new strategies and quickly before Ash Ketchum became synonymous with 'predictable'.

That was what he personally loved about being in Sinnoh. Traveling through the region helped him develop his skills as a trainer and as a person, meeting many new friends and getting the opportunity to meet all four of the regions Elite Four plus Cynthia, the resident champion. It was like a dream come true, in fact if Ash had to pick, this had been the best journey he had experienced yet. He had learned far more travelling through Sinnoh compared to the other regions, not that he considered them a less of an experience.

"If I go through this passage here I should be able to make it to the Battle Zone," Ash observed looking at the map closely. If he was going to set out on his own then it made sense to learn how to navigate around using a map.

The island where the Battle Zone was located wasn't very large but it was bit enough for great swathes of forest and minimal areas of civilization baring the Battle Tower, the hotels and the Battleground; which was a small restaurant that only certain members were permitted to enter and as cool as it sounded, Ash knew he wouldn't get in. From the details written in the map, it was for trainers that were eighteen and up or held a high status could get in.

Ash had none of those. His sixteenth birthday was coming up though.

In all honesty, he wasn't sure if he cared or not. Frankly Ash didn't believe he even had the time to check out the Battleground anyway, getting ready to take on the Battle Tower was his top priority.

Pikachu watched as his trainer focused on the map, looking for a way to get to their next destination and challenge. Just like his trainer he was filled with excitement at being able to take on their next opponent, whenever and wherever it was, he would be ready for it!

As the yellow mouse waited for Ash to figure out the route they needed to take his eyes landed on a patch of white laying on the ground, just barely touching the bottom of Ash's shoe. Jumping off from Ash's shoulder to the ground Pikachu used his nose in order to check the paper. There was no malicious smell or intent coming from the paper, the scent upon it actually smelt rather similar to Ash. Curiously, Pikachu grabbed the sheet of paper and held it up high for his trainer to see.

"Pika-pi!"

"Hold on a sec, alright Pikachu?" Ash's voice came from behind the map.

Pikachu pouted, placing the letter on the ground. "Chu..."

Time felt like it was going at a Slowpoke's pace with how Ash was going. Not that his trainer was stupid, Pikachu was glad to see that he was taking the initiative to getting them going safely. His trainer had taken a major blow to his confidence when Misty had joined them years ago, she was alright but some of her comments went too far sometimes. Unfortunately, by the time she had left it had been far too late. The damage had been done and the boy's self-esteem was at an all time low. But Ash was starting to become more certain of himself and making choices. Still, Ash was not great with geography. Or maps.

And, the letter was important! Pikachu could tell!

Sparks flickered from his cheeks as an evil smile formed. Perhaps a little shock could change his mind?

"Pika-CHU!"

Lightning came from Pikachu and zoomed straight towards Ash, shocking the teen. The cries of pain from the man echoed the area and Pikachu made a mental apology to his trainer as he cut the power and watched as Ash fell to the ground with a burnt map.

A small cloud escaped from Ash's lips. "P-Pikachu... why?"

"Pika!" Holding up the letter once more, flashing Ash's name towards him.

"Huh?" Ash blinked recovering rapidly from the attack as he stared at the letter.

Picking it from Pikachu the trainer looked at it, and grinned. "Think it's a challenge or something Pikachu?"

The electric rat shrugged.

"Who cares!" Ash grinned widely holding the letter. "Whoever it's from, it's probably something awesome, right Pikachu!"

The electric Pokemon nodded. "Pikachu!"

Ash began to open the letter, completely unaware that his life and world were about to change dramatically.

* * *

Chapter One-End.

So ends the beginning of Rise of the Uzumaki, this is a project that wouldn't have come to be without my friend Alec McDowell. As I stated at the beginning of the chapter, this will be a Male! Harem fic, however, the members of the harem will not be shown until the end of chapter 2; and no begging for pairings please. They have already been decided for the most part. There is a poll on my profile that will be CLOSED when second chapter is up, so please make sure to get your votes in and quick.

In your review make sure to leave constructive and SERIOUS feedback, not one liners telling me to update soon. As an author I would like serious criticism so that I may improve my writing and make this fic more enjoyable, so until next time, I hope all of you enjoyed reading the first chapter!

I am also taking beta request as well, if interested either PM me or say so in your review.

Until next time!


	2. Gathered

Chapter 2: Gathered

The sounds of tapping echoed clearly through the darkness of the room, loudly and repetitively as it rang off the walls bouncing back and further through his ears. Obviously, the person that was making the tapping sound was either becoming impatient or was thoroughly enjoying the circumstances of the situation as he lay there, unmoving. Thankfully, his glasses remained unscratched and safely on his face.

Whomever said that being transported in mere seconds was fun, LIED!

"Urgh," A muffled groan and cough followed a bit after the last tap. "Man, what ran me over?" The voice belonged to another boy, around his age from the looks of it.

A different groan caught his attention a bit over by the other boy. "H-huh? You too?" Confused and relieved. "I thought I was the only one."

"Make that three of us," the first boy finally spoke up, squinting his eyes to get a solid vision of the other two boys that were with him. One of them had spiky blonde hair wearing an orange and black jumpsuit as a strange headband was wrapped around his forehead, the other one had a red and black hat in the middle was a strange blue design that seemed to resemble a ball along with a white collared shirt underneath a black and yellow striped vest. In his arms was a strange yellow creature, being held tightly against his chest.

It reminded him off an overgrown rodent in actuality.

"M-Make that four," This time the voice belonged to an irritable female, with deep red hair that fell just slightly past her shoulders. Her disgruntled expression indicated that she wasn't pleased where she was, her eyes told a different story, glancing back at them ever so often. Her body was covered with a lavender sweater with a pair of shorts.

"Six to be precise," A mature feminine voice corrected, gently. Wearing a black robe with red clouds on it and stood gracefully, having the posture of royalty. The way she looked and talked made it feel as if she was of high importance, giving a tiny smile at them. "My partner and I are here as well," gesturing towards a rather tall man with spiky orange hair. His face would have been considered handsome, if not for all the piercings that were visible upon his face.

"Nagato," The man greeted in a low baritone voice.

The girl, with the red hair tense pointed at them. "You! The both of you're from the Akatsuki!"

"The... Akatsuki?" The boy with the hat repeated, allowing the word to roll off his tongue. A frown slide on, eyes narrowed glanced between the girl and the two older members. "Daybreak? No offense that sounds more like a name for a brand then an organization," raising an eyebrow at them. "Couldn't you think of something more...I don't know, malicious?"

"Makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside," Harry remarked dryly, shifting into an offensive position. It almost sounded pleasant compared to Death Eaters, regardless the boy with the blonde hair and the girl seemed to know and were frightened, or angered in the boy's expression, of the two members. His fingers twitched carefully on his wand, deeply in his pocket eyeing them carefully. It didn't take a genius to figure out that they were immensely powerful and were capable of beating them.

The blonde boy's teeth gritted his teeth together, eyes flashing with anger as hatred emitted from him. "You...BASTARDS!" Lunged forward, pulling out a sharp black knife from his pouch with the intention to kill. His eyes flashed blood red, sharpening upon the shortening distance.

"Konan!" Nagato snapped gruffly, eyes narrowed slashed his arm to the side.

The woman, Konan, crouched slightly her arms snapped up quickly putting her hands together and rapidly made strange shapes staring down at the blonde boy. "Kami Shuriken!" Once those words left her mouth, sheets of paper emerged from her cloth attaching within her hands into a large x-like object, gleaming with sharp sides like an actually weapon. Gripping them tightly, arms snapped upwards and clashed against the black knife from the boy and pushing against the weapon staring stoically at the blonde, whom was enraged.

"H-hey!" The girl spoke up, pushing up her glasses clearly frightened and uncertain.

"Put down your weapon," Konan stated firmly, toneless at the boy. She didn't even blink at the angry expression from the boy or at the hateful killing intent that was leaking off of the boy, she understood why the boy felt the way he did and had every right to take it out upon them; there would be nothing in the world that they could do to make it up to Naruto. However, it was necessary regardless. They were so close to completing their goal!

Naruto growled. "Like hell I will!"

"You can't beat us. And you know it, you're far too weak and you have no idea of our strength," She chastised coldly, eyes flickered with sympathy only for it to quickly vanish. She could easily blew the boy away however, he was still Nagato's cousin regardless of his status as a Jinchuuriki and it would be foolish to do so in the Uzumaki compound. She was not stupid enough to harm the boy, especially due to the strong powers that came from the other rooms which surrounded him. Nagato and herself would be killed within seconds. It was better to settle things civily and discover the reason for their summons. "Please put down your weapon. Neither myself or Nagato wish to bring harm to you."

"Why should I believe you?" The blonde growled angrily.

Konan closed her eyes briefly. "It's your choice. But I swear that I am telling the truth."

The boy refused to move keeping his stare firmly on the woman, placing his strength into the weapon attempting to push her back. It was clear to him that he was being blinded by his own anger and distrust, which was reasonable and was a smart move on his part. Despite being clouded by his emotions, it aided him in contemplating her words carefully yet kept his eyes locked on. Konan was certain that the boy would eventually find sense in her words and place the weapon down, then again dealing with Konoha's was difficult and usual unsatisfying.

Not she blamed him of course. That was be far too stupid and prejudice, she did not and would not blame the sins of a father upon a child. Not even Nagato would go that far, while holding the title of the strongest and cruelest member of the Akatsuki, would never directly blame a child for their families sins. However, that would not stop him from fighting a trained Shinobi child.

That being said Konan accepted the fact she too felt bitterness and resentment towards Konoha for the tragedies that had be fallen Ame and the death of Yahiko. The village had taken away many things that she held dear, leaving only Nagato by her side. Being together prevented the both of them from being driven insane by their own despair and sorrow.

The blonde relented. Slowly, the air was still filled with anger and distrust. "This doesn't mean I trust the two of you."

"Of course," Konan inclined her head slowly and dismissed her own weapons.

The girl's mouth was slack jawed. "W-what you're just going to believe her?"

"Not like we have a choice," The blonde retorted towards her lowly, barely acknowledging her presence. "Besides, the fight would be pointless at best. And she's also right I don't stand a chance against them. It would be better to co-operate with them."

Harry snorted. "You know if I had known that knife fighting, death threats and murder attempts were a part of the family reunion I would have stayed at the Dursleys. At least then I'd have a good idea of who to bet on," he said lowly to the other boy.

"Well," The other darker haired boy looked thoughtful. "I'm sure it's only a standard thing. Besides, our family can't be that violent!"

It was at that point in time where the boy had been proven wrong as the sounds of cracking caught everyone's attention only for the wall to burst open, brick exploding and flying everywhere in the room awakening large amounts of dust. The group covered their mouths to conceal the loud coughs as a silhouette of a taller woman appeared, stepping menacingly towards them. Surprisingly, she utterly ignored their presence and quickly made her way towards the wall, where a man with spiky red hair wearing a black cape and a strange blue like uniform slide from the wall straight onto the floor.

The boy with the hat stared, bewildered. "Clair? Lance-"

"DIE JACKASS!" The woman, Clair, roared angrily, throwing her fist at the man. Her eyes blazed with fiery rage.

The redhead reacted snapping his head to the side and grabbed the woman's arm before tossing her aside towards the right wall allowing him to regain his ground before using his feet to push backwards to stand him and slide to the opposite wall, looking at the woman wryly. His body didn't bother to switch positions as he glanced towards hat boy, giving a quick nod before returning his attention at the crazed woman.

"I didn't mean it Ibuki, now put you're hands down and we can discuss this like civilized adults," the man reasoned carefully.

The woman, whatever her name was, bristled. "Bastard! Shut up and die!" Her hands shot up using a different hand formation than the blue haired woman before her. "Dragon Release: Divine Sound Brea-"

WHAM!

Without any sort of warning the woman and the redhead both slumped to the ground, drool slipping out of their mouths. A woman with auburn hair stood holding a frying pan, looking stern and displeased at the two adults, lips curled into a frown. Shaking her head tiredly, her eyes landed upon one individual and instantly her mood changed into instant happiness. Her eyes seemed to sparkle, lighting up the room upon seeing the bewildered boy.

"Ash!" The cheer in her voice seemed to bounce off the walls, her smile spread widely and rushed towards the capped boy pulling him into a tight hug. "I was wondering when you were going to get here! You made me worry young man," still embracing the boy but the concern was clear. "Have you been eating well? It doesn't look like it, maybe I should whip you up a good meal."

The boy was stunned, in shock. "M-mom?"

"Yes Ash?"

The capped boy, blinked slowly. "What's going on?"

"You're not the only one that's lost," The girl with red hair murmured dryly.

Harry snorted. "That's an understatement of the year if I've ever heard one."

"Oh yes, I'm sorry about that!" The woman apologized sincerely, bowed lowly. Clearing her throat and regained her posture. "My name is Hanako, or Delia. All of you can just call me either, I know all of you must be confused right now and I promise everything will be explained momentarily," Looking sheepish and apologetic at them. "I just ask for your patience just a bit longer. I still have to deal with these two," casting a mixed look at the unconscious adults.

The girl pushed up her glassed again, frowning. "Why should we? None of us have a reason to stay here or do anything-" She was cut off the other boy, with blonde hair placed his hand upon her shoulder. The words trailed off and found herself unable to continue, seeing the determined look on his face.

The boy, Ash, snapped out of his confusion. "Mom what exactly is going on here?"

"Please." The woman pleaded gently, with a sad smile. "Just... give us some time to explain."

"Mom..."

Harry watched carefully, moving towards the girl and the blonde boy. "What exactly is going on here?"

"The kid knows the three of them, but he doesn't seem to know why any of us are here." The girl observed, frowning. Folding her arms against her chest, slyly glanced at the two. "The only thing I know is that this is an 'Uzuamki' reunion, which means there are several possibilities to having us summoned here. Most of them not good," seeing the confused look on the two boy's face she raised an eyebrow. "What?" She asked roughly at the two. "Don't you two know anything?"

The blonde and Harry looked uncomfortable. "I... didn't even know there my family was still alive," The blonde admitted, his feet shuffled awkwardly as he found the ground to be rather interesting. It wasn't for the lack of trying, he had been turned away by Shinobi and civilians when he was younger when he went looking for the information. Upon approaching the Sandaime, the old man had gently told him that he wasn't ready to know yet before ushering him away to play and once he got his Genin status the need to search fell stiff since he had been overcome with excitement and joy at the prospect of being able to be a Shinobi. Now he was feeling regret for not continuing his search.

"I was told that only my relatives, the Dursleys," Harry elaborated further to them. "Were the only ones left and the rest of my family had been murdered," living with the Dursleys stomped out any motivation he had for trying to find any lost relatives and going to anyone else for help. Vernon and Petunia were thorough at keeping him under their thumb and preventing him from telling others of the abuse they had placed him under, meeting Aunt Marge only cemented to his initial fear of the possibility of other family members being exactly like them. At a young age he had accepted that he wasn't able to get any affection from them and was barely seen as little more than a slave, but that never stopped him from hoping.

His father had been an entirely different story once he had gotten his letter from Hogwarts, Harry had tried to look up his family tree both during his time preparing for first year and once he had gotten to school only to turn up dry. That had been the last straw for him leading him to stop trying, resigning himself to a life at the Dursleys until Sirius had appeared into his life. Being on the run from the corruption of the Ministry had forced Sirius to leave Harry behind, just so that he wouldn't be seen as an 'accomplice' in his escape. Especially with Snape being so adamant to send Sirius back to prison for a crime he hadn't even committed.

It hadn't helped that he barely received any messages from his godfather, while they were long and well written they held the same vagueness that were in Ron's and Hermione's letters. But at least he was making an effort to keep in touch and update to date with matters, though it was clear Sirius was irritated and bored. With what, he wasn't entirely sure of but it was clear that the man's patience was running thin as it was.

But... swallowing thickly as he watched as the woman, Delia, helped the two adults off the floor, maybe Sirius wouldn't need to be irritated any longer if things worked out. Of course Harry wasn't just about to jump up and ask for help from people he didn't know, regardless if they were family. Until he had gotten to them and find the reason how he and the others had been brought, remaining silent would aid him.

The girl's eyes flashed with an unreadable expression. "Apparently," Shaking her head sarcastically only to sigh. "I didn't even realize that there were other Uzumaki alive."

"During the great separation many Uzumaki's managed to escape to other various villages, my parents found refuge in Ame." Nagato spoke up for the first time drawing attention to himself, Konan flagged behind him as he approached the three younger ones watching the red haired girl and blonde boy stiff. He raised his hand calmly. "I will not raise my hand at you. Nor instigate violence." Not that anything would come from it and the fact he was surrounded by family made a bit of a world of difference, judging by the malnourishment at the two boys made his stomach twist with boiling fury.

He may not hold Konoha in high regard and sought to bring vengeance upon that precise village that did not mean he could not feel anger at the abuse his cousins had been placed under. The signs were pretty much screaming right in front of them!

"Nagato," Konan whispered to him gently.

The two stared at each other with unreadable expressions before he reluctantly allowed his shoulders to slump.

Harry bit his lip, eyeing the two carefully. "Since... we're family," He used that word rather loosely. "Perhaps we should introduce ourselves?"

"That would be a good start," Konan stated with a small smile. "My name is Konan."

The taller man's facial expression didn't change. "Nagato," his eyes flickered towards the blonde. "And you're Naruto Uzumaki."

The blonde, Naruto, stiffened and glared at the man. "You know of me." He didn't sound surprised at the man's knowledge of him.

"Karin," The redhead introduced cautiously keeping her eyes trained on the older two standing slightly behind Naruto. Her body shook slightly fearful of the older members but didn't seem willing to back down, it obvious that she wasn't a fighter.

"Harry," he introduced as a screech echoed into the air. His head snapped towards the sound only for him to blush as familiar feathers brushed against his face and a tickling sensation against his ear, his eyes met with stern amber staring down at him. "Err, this is Hedwig."

Hedwig lifted her wing in greeting before returning to nibbling Harry's ear with affection.

"She's a beautiful owl," Konan stated, her small smile stayed. It was better to try and make a connection rather than further antagonist them, it had been a long time since Nagato and herself had been able to have decent conversations with other people usually keeping between themselves in order to further their goals. Seeing the small blush on the boys face nearly brought a smile on her face as her compliment had been sincere.

Harry smiled. "Thank you, she's been with me since I was eleven." Gently petting her as Hedwig let out a happy screech from his shoulder.

"Shouldn't we do something about him?" Karin asked dryly, gesturing towards the other boy carrying the small electric rodent in his arms.

"His name is Ash," Harry said musing at the teen.

Upon hearing his name the teen looked at them. "Uh... yeah what is it?"

Karin snorted. "Nothing, we're just trying figure out what's going on. So get your skinny ass over here!"

"My ass is not skinny," Ash murmured under his breath as he went to rejoin the small group ignoring the fact his mother had gone into caretaker mode as began to make Clair and Lance comfortable where they were. It wasn't an unusual site at the Ketchum household and even if his current predicament was something usual his mind was trying to figure out how his family was involved. These thoughts were pushed to the side as he saw the bird perched on Harry's shoulder, pulling out his Pokedex and pointing at it.

"No data is found," The device beeped in monotone.

"What the hell is that?" Karin exclaimed pointing at the device with interest and shock, eyes gleaming curiously.

Ash frowned, pocketing it. "It's my Pokedex, haven't you seen one before?"

"What are Pokedexs?" Harry brought up.

"Well, you know. Pokedexs," The teen tried again bewildered struggling to explain. "For collecting data...and using for ID?" Seeing the completely lost looks, he slammed his palm onto his face and sighed heavily. "You know! For Pokemon! Like Pikachu here," holding up his yellow partner.

"Pikachu!"

"A...Pokemon?" Naruto repeated, eyes blinked staring at the cheerful looking creature that tilted curiously back at him. "What the hell is that?"

"I just said his name is Pikachu," Ash grunted back. How could they not know what Pokemon were?

"I've never heard of a Pokemon before," Karin muttered to herself.

Harry shook his head. "Me either."

"Nagato and I have never encountered them," Konan said looking at the small creature with interest. "Perhaps, it is something only native to your home?"

"But..." Ash's words seemed to trail off as he looked confused. It seemed impossible for people to not known what Pokemon were; while he was aware that there were many non-Pokemon out in the world such as the fish he had seen at Cerulean Gym during his journey through Kanto. "I guess Pokemon aren't all over the world."

"What exactly are Pokemon anyway?" Naruto asked, bending down to Pikachu's level staring at the rodent reaching out to poke the small creature.

"Wait! Don't do that-!" it was too late.

The moment Naruto's finger pressed against Pikachu's cheek, the small rodent unleashed it's electrical power around the room shocking the blonde boy along with Ash and Karin. Harry made the smart move to dive to the ground dodging the bolts as Nagato and Konan managed to evade them effortlessly. Thankfully, the jolts didn't moved from the desgination targets leaving Delia and the two adults unscathed by the attack until the electricity finally stopped.

Naruto's hair stood on end, letting out a cloud of smoke. "Wow...shocking," Collapsing to the floor.

"Y...you're telling me," Ash stuttered, his body twitched.

Harry looked up. "Is... is it over?"

"Y-Yeah..." Karin managed to squeak out, her hair was frazzled all over and stood on one foot.

"S-sorry about that, Pikachu doesn't like being touched by strangers." Ash apologized, getting over the shock quickly. Rubbing the back of his head a grin spread across his face. "I'm use to Pikachu's shocks so I can get over them. He's an electric type, storing electricity in it's cheeks and body."

"Electric... type?" Konan repeated, frowned thinly at the boy.

"There are seventeen different types in total," Ash continued, beginning to sweat under the woman's emotionless stare. "Electric is one of them-"

"There's also the basic types Fire, Water, Grass, Flying, Ground, Rock and Ice." A muffle male voice spoke up, barely coherent. Lance was sitting in the chair awkwardly, on a slant staring up at the ceiling with a cloth over his forehead. "And the other types-"

"Being Poison, Psychic, Steel, Dark, Ghost, Bug, Normal, Fighting and Dragon." The woman, Clair or Ibuki, continued a bit angrily as she glared at the red haired man. She too had a cloth over her forehead only neither of the two seemed ill. Grabbing the cloth and removing the fabric, arching her back up before turning her eyes on the crowd. "And of course, Electric make the seventeen types. Our clan, the Uzumaki, specializes in the Dragon Type. It is our signature and our pride."

"Our...pride?" Karin frowned at the other woman's words.

"When the Uzumaki clan was under siege we managed to escape using a special time and space jutsu," Clair answered, whimsically as she stood up, shaking her head roughly. "However, we will be discussing this further in the conference room with the rest of the Uzumaki clan."

"The rest?" Harry repeated, shocked.

The woman nodded briskly. "Yes, the rest. While our clan has meat with a great misfortunate we have been able to hold onto various members of our clan, despite many more still scattered. We are doing everything in our power to gather our clan back together as quickly as possible."

"Why now of all times?" Karin asked, looking worried. "I know a little history of my clan, but I know that there usually is a reason behind the gathering-" She stopped upon the woman's hand.

"As I said," her words firm, eyes moving around the room to gaining their attention. "This will be discussed in the conference room. Until then you will wait here, am I understood?"

Without waiting for a reply she immediately went over to where the red haired man, Lance, as they recalled sat proceeding to grab him by the collar roughly before pulling him upwards faces inches apart only to start slapping him several times as they wore vacant expressions. It hadn't taken them long to figure out the sense of normalcy emitted from the scene was a daily ritual that they went under, only to cause the younger males to wonder if it was a common thing for females of their clan to be rather violent.

Nagato sent a sideway glance at Konan, warily.

Clair sent Lance a disgusted look. "Are you going stay that way or you actually going to do something?"

"I plan to," The man murmured rubbing the side of his cheeks.

"Good," The woman retorted sternly almost stomping her way towards the door sending the man a poisonous look. "Give them a quick summary, Wataru!" Slamming the door upon her way out causing the room to shake ever so slightly, some of the portraits nearly fell from the walls.

Lance stared at the door silently for several moments only to shake his head, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I apologize for Clair's attitude. Whenever something frustrates and anger her she tends to become violent, I hope that none of you hold it against her," giving them a sheepish grin. "Anyway I guess I should give all of you the rundown as to why you're all here. You must be curious," He casually slid his hands into his pockets ignoring the looks. "Well first thing is first, my name is Uzumaki Wataru though Ash knows me as Lance my other name."

"I thought the Uzumaki clan had been wiped out during the great destruction," Konan mentioned calmly looking rather intrigued at the man. "In fact ruins of Whirlpool still remains the same as the day of the siege," before the man was able to reply she held up her hand. "I know that the woman referred to a space-time jutsu. I am at a loss as to how some members of the Uzumaki clan remained."

"That's a very good question, Konan. As you and Nagato must have known Naruto's mother was of the Uzumaki clan and was sent to Konoha as tradition states in order to strength our ties between the two villages," Lance spoke missing the interested gazed from Naruto as the two Akatsuki members nodded. "I'm assuming that you are the son of Jun correct Nagato?"

The man nodded stiffly.

"When the Jutsu had been used some of the Uzumaki clan had not reached it in time while others were lost during it's use," Lance elaborated, frowning before nodding at the others. "Jun had left the clan upon meeting your father. It was on her own volition to leave the clan and our home."

Nagato nodded slowly. Any resentment that he had thought was going to emerge instantly vanished, it had been his mother's choice to leave for the events of the tragedy. He could not fault his mother for falling her heart.

"But if Nagato's and Naruto's mother along with Karin's parents were from the Uzumaki clan what about Ash and myself?" Harry questioned curiously. "How are we a part of the clan?"

"Your mother, is Lady Yuriko, she separated from us during the jutsu initial activation. One of the Elders has been keeping an eye on her through another Jutus," Lance answered truthfully. "Unfortunately one of the drawbacks to that jutsu is that it can only observe. Not interact." Glancing towards Ash, eyes brimming with curiosity, he mentally began to prepare himself for the inevitable. "As for how Ash is related to the clan well..." he exchanged a subtle glance with Delia.

"He's related through his mom too?" Karin responded sarcastically, catching the glance. "Is the Uzumaki clan filled with only women?"

Delia chuckled softly. "I'm afraid not. I'm only related through marriage."

A deafening silence overcame the room. Most of them looked confused and wondered as to Ash's connection to the Uzumaki since all of them had the clan's blood running through their veins it would highly be unlikely that someone outside would be summoned.

Ash swallowed lowly. "Then... am I related through my father?"

"...Yes," Came the strained near quiet answer from the man.

"Where is my father?" Ash pressed on his voice started to escalate louder. "Is he here?"

"Yes." Lance replied.

Ash's eyes narrowed. "Where?"

"He is here," Lance answered vaguely as possible, turning his sights away from Ash. He had to focus on the main issue at hand time was of the essence. "However now is not the time for it. For the past two decades we have been forced to watch as an unknown anomaly has begun to spread and infect various areas under our protection. Unfortunately our resources are limited and are the number of clan members to deal with this threat. That is why all of you are here. To receive the necessary training in order to take of the threat at hand!"

The sound of crickets could almost be heard seeing the bewildered and disbelief of their faces.

"You're kidding, right?" Karin was the first one to recover, snapping at the man. "You honestly expect us to believe you and do whatever you say? We hardly even know you! Give us one reason as to why we should even left a finger. Just one!"

Lance's eyes locked on to her. No words were spoken as he calmly approached the young girl only for Karin to back away, gulping in fear at him. Her eyes reflected the vast surge of emotions running through her staring up at the man.

"Because," He said in a calm manner with a gentle smile. "We're family."

The girl nodded. "...Okay..."

"What is this threat?" Naruto asked seriously, looking at the man.

Lance pressed his lips together. "We're not entirely sure of what exactly the threat is. Only that it's spreading rapidly infecting and destroying many worlds."

"Wait...worlds?" Naruto's eyebrows furrowed together his eyes snapped at seeing the slacked jawed Harry and Ash, the awed Karin and the passive Nagato and Konan as they seemed to be unsurprised by the revelation.

Lance smiled slightly. "What did I forget to mention? The job of the Uzumaki clan is to protect the multi-verse."

* * *

Chapter two-end.

I apologize for the long wait and for how short the chapter is, the next will shall be longer so no worries! I would like to thank everyone for reading and encouraging this fic to keep going as such, the poll on my profile will not be taken down just yet and will be remain for a while longer.

Unfortunately, I've been told that same-gender relationships, be they the focus and mentioned briefly are to be removed from FFN. However, I am uncertain if it is true and would like some clarification since neither myself or my friends know if it is true. Thus, this and all of my other fics are being moved to my LJ account which is posted on my profile so please make sure to take a look.


	3. Training Begins

Chapter 3: Training begins

The Multiverse.

Multiple universes strung together by the fragments of space and time, kept so close yet so far away from another to maintain the balance of order of each world. The less people that knew of the other worlds the better, it was a guarded secret passed down to the Uzumaki clan to protect from harm and destruction alongside the observation of the Senju and Uchiha clans. Their ancestor had feared the possibility of a war breaking out due to another member from the Uchiha clan, having souls and minds tainted by the greed and power of the Sharingan running through their veins. Their ancestors had noticed that the eldest son had become obsessed with power seeking it out by any means necessary, flaunting it to friend and foe alike without reason or remorse. It had disgusted him to learn that the same attitude and idealisim had been passed down straight from the eldest son's line, provoking him to choose the youngest son to be the leader of the clan in his stead.

The successor's clan had split into two separate clans; the Uzumaki clan and the Senju clan, the two still held tight and close bonds with each other despite their individual duties handed down to them by the Rikudo Sannin, the leader and father of the three clans. The protecting and guarding the multi-verse was only one of the duties carried down to the Uzumaki clan line, as their second duty was to observe and carefully watch the Uchiha clan grow, fearing that one day the corruption of the family would one day bring chaos and destruction to their homeland.

However, with the destruction of Whirlpool due to the Great Shinobi War, they had been practically forced to abandon their duty doing whatever they could in order to live. The clansmen that they had passed by to the conference room had been survivors and participated in the fight during the Great Separation, many of them looked well trained and had hardened gazes in their eyes as they gazed at them with curiosity and wonder exchanging lowly whispers between one another excitedly to seeing family members returning to the clan at such a time. The excitement was completely understandable as from what Lance and Clair had informed them, some of the clansmen had lost hope of ever returning to their worlds and seeing those that had been lost ever returning regardless of how much work had been done of the Pathways to the other worlds. Their presence seemed to have rekindled that hope.

The one thing that struck them as odd was the rather large number of those with red hair. They had been a few that had the oddly and normal coloured hair such as raven, which Harry and Ash had, those with the different coloured had greens and purples, which none of them commented on. Not that they could with woman, Konan, having blue hair. Different hair colour wasn't the strangest thing that they had seen thus far and most likely wouldn't be. Still Harry, Naruto and Ash couldn't help feel that they were out of place on some level that just couldn't be explained.

Nevertheless, now wasn't the time to allow their anxiety to take over.

The doors to the conference room opening revealing a room full of people of all ages staring intently upon the group as they walked to the middle of the room. Eyes pried at them like vultures circling their prey, waiting to dive in for the kill.

"Greetings," Spoke the man at the centre draped in a dark green kimono with light black lining, his dark red hair was short and spiky having streaks of grey in them. Despite his age the power from him could be felt from a mile away. "I am Grand Elder Shigure of the Uzumaki clan, we welcome you all. Home," Bowing his head towards them as stunned silence seemed to fill the room. "I only wish this could have been on a more peaceful occasion." looking older then he apparently was the man continued. "I am uncertain if Wataru-sama and Ibuki-sama had informed all of you of the growing threat that has gathered our concern and worry."

"I have not yet informed them entirely of the situation, Grand Elder." Lance answered immediately.

Shigure nodded. "Very well then, pray tell what has he informed six of you of?"

"L-... I mean," Karin corrected on the name having dealt with elders in the past judging by the tone of her voice and physical posture. "We have currently been informed of the duties pertaining towards the Uchiha clan and the Multiverse. However, as far as I am aware, Grand Elder Shigure, nothing has seem out of place to my knowledge."

The elder was silent staring down at them. "That may be true, unfortunately that is not entirely the case. We have noticed an _infection_of sorts that has begun to spread amongst the world's at a rather rapid rate, we are barely able to contain it for much longer." Allowing a pause to convey the seriousness of the situation he continued. "The pathways of the worlds that we have managed to fix were the ones leading to the selected worlds that you hail from," gesturing towards them.

"Pathways?" Naruto repeated, allowing the word to roll off his tongue confused.

"It's how we travel to other worlds and how we brought you here," Another elder answered immediately. "These Pathways are necessary to access the worlds," A heavy sigh escaped the elder's mouth. "Unfortunately, they are in need of repairs. Having been damaged since the Great Separation, only now have we been able to completely fix several pathways."

Karin stared, eyes glazed over calculating over. "Chakra overload..."

"And converging," Konan added to the girl's train of thought. "Too much chakra mixing with another source of chakra, not of the Uzumaki clan, must have pierced through these 'Pathways' cracking them." It was no wonder that the Uzumaki were so feared and why they had been targeted by the other countries if they could accomplish such feats. It was far better to eliminate them rather than keep them around, regardless of how much they could have brought to another village, the cons outweighed the benefit. "But where exactly is 'where'?"

"This is the Void," Grand Elder Shigure answered calmly, his tone sober. "A distortion of time and space located everywhere yet nowhere among the worlds. However, after spending such an amount of time locked here within the Void we have experienced a...side effect, of sorts."

Harry frowned. "Side-effect?"

"The aging process has slowed down almost completely," Lance answered quietly.

A stunned silence had be fallen the group staring in disbelief at what they had been told, the very concept seemed to be unreal. How was that even possible?

"I-...Immortality?" Karin gasped.

Grand Elder Shigure's eyes focused on her. "That...is not entirely incorrect. We are fully capable of dying child, but our foolishness has resulted in this...this..._problem._"

Harry understood what the man was trying to explain. "Having 'eternal' youth," using the word very loosely. "Isn't something to be praised or sought after in fact, it's the opposite. Imagine being forced to watch as everyone you love grows older and die while you stay forever young. It's hell pure and simple." His experience dealing with the Philosopher's Stone had taught him that much, there was nothing to live for if everything else dear to them as gone what was life living for?

"And besides," Ash added with a grin. "Who wants to live forever anyway?"

Naruto nodded furiously. "Agreed!"

"..." Karin remained silently, glanced towards the sides. She could understand their perspective, but after working alongside Orochimaru for so long...no, she shook her head. That didn't matter now. She was back home with her family. "Y-yeah..."

Nagato was in deep thought at the prospect of immortality. It didn't suit his taste preferably he'd avoid the idea of becoming something as disgusting as Orochimaru had been relentlessly aiming for, the very thought of the snake made him shudder in disgust though he found himself unable to deny the irony in it. But the subject was not what his mind was currently on rather then connection to the Rinnengan, having awakened in a young age there was a possibility of others having it as well. He had to know.

"You said that there was an infection spreading among the worlds, right?" Harry began steering away from the concept and back onto the main issue at hand. "What can you tell us about it and when did it start? Maybe there's enough time to prevent it from speading even further then it already has and destroy it."

Karin shot him a look. "And have us do what exactly? If they can't do anything about what good are we?"

"They never said that they couldn't," Harry rebutted the girl. "But... you have brought up a good point," Agreeing with her glancing back at the Grand Elder. "What can we," gesturing to small group. "Exactly do? From the looks of it there isn't much we really can do."

Shigure's lips twitched. "That is a very excellent question, boy. And while yes, at the current moment none of you perhaps they," nodding towards Nagato and Konan. "Are able to hold off the infection which is why you will all undergo special training to get you to where you need to be. Another reason is that you children have the ability to adapt quicker than adults with the added bonus of no-one ever suspecting you because your ages."

"Like spies," Harry murmured.

"Close enough," The elder remarked. "Living within the Void has allowed us to adapt and expand our range of living and combat as such some Pathways that were not badly damaged, we have managed to travel to and added their usefulness to our own."

Harry stared. "So...you guys steal stuff from those worlds when conducting missions and bring it back here, where you can add it to your arsenal and to the clan."

"It's a bit more complicated than that, child." One clan head stated.

A younger one snorted. "No it's not, the boy said it dead on!"

"...Pretty much," Clair and Lance admitted in unison, as the redhead turned in surprise at seeing the woman only to get a sharp jab into the ribs causing him to let out a high-pitched cry.

"Which brings up the question what _exactly_ you want us to do," Harry repeated stressing the world. "Not to sound rude, but I think it's kind of important to figure out how we're supposed to handle this. Especially when we're all from different worlds which means people will be _looking_for us."

Naruto snorted. "Looking? Try having the entire Shinobi populace searching for you." That was fact there was no way that anyone that knew of his _status _wouldn't be looking for him.

"That was been taken care of, I assure the both of you." Grand Elder Shigure answered catching both of their attention. "Be that as it may, we must begin your training immediately which is why a series of tests in order to figure properly train all of you."

"Tests?" Ash choked out.

Naruto mirrored his expression. "Like written?"

The room was filled with loud chuckles and genuine smiles seeing the two staring in complete and absolute horror. Obviously the two did not have an affinity for paper tests, not that it was something to be ashamed of, nevertheless their combined reactions had brought him a laugh.

"Perhaps," Shigure remarked teasingly at the two whom had gone pale. "But I assure you, these tests are simply to measure your combat knowledge and what we must add in order to get all of you to where you need to be to fight against this infection."

"Joy," Karin murmured under breath disgruntled. Physical combat was not one of her strong points preferring to be on the sidelines doing research and providing support instead being on the frontline like the majority of Orochimaru's pawns and experiments. Being saved by that man and enlisted into his personal forces, the loyalty she had felt to the man was something beyond her understanding as it slowly began to drift away under the miniscule time she had spent with the other members of the clan.

Was it because of her clan loyalty or something more?

* * *

The tests that they had been going through were a combination of physical and information requiring them to act and react to the situation during that moment of time. Having all of them perform together as a group instead of individually but still having them remain separate to gain the most accurate results. Surprisingly enough the tests had not just focused simply on Shinobi training but other areas such as magic, which had taken Harry by surprise the most, before moving on towards Pokemon, to Ash's delight and Harry's ire, technology know how, first aid and other basic and advanced needs of survival and combat. Needless to say each tests had at least had one area that had fallen into their favour.

Thankfully, it hadn't taken them long to finish the requirements allowing them to finally get the rest that they deserved.

Ash plopped himself into a chair. "M-Man, I don't think I've ever done that much exercise in my entire life!"

"Hmmm," Harry agreed nodding his head tired from the exhaustion. Between climbing up all the stairs, Quidditch practice, running from his cousin and trying to stay alive while fighting the forces of evil at the same time he hadn't had much time for exercising beyond that.

Konan frowned. "You really should try getting as much exercise as possible; it isn't good for your health to neglect it." Her maternal instincts were already kicking in finding herself fussing over the young boys like an concerned parent. The tone of astonishment had not gone unnoticed by the two as they shrunk from her tone and stare, pressing her lips together a soft sigh escape her lips. "I suppose its fine for now. But," the click in her tone instantly captured their attention. "You should be doing more then you have been."

"Hm," Nagato grunted sipping the tea from his cup. "You're acting like a mother."

The woman pierced him a look. "Care to repeat that Nagato?" Her words sent chills down the males backs observing as her eyes held upon the man silently.

"...I love you?"

She smirked and nodded approvingly, returning to her own drink. "Good boy. See boys, always listen to us girls. You'll live longer that way."

"I hear that!" Karin cried with a large grin on her face.

Naruto's eyebrows furrowed together. "If we always listened to women why does Ero-sannin still get slapped?"

"Thank Merlin I'm gay. At least I don't have to deal with women," Harry murmured under his breath as quietly as possible as he tried to remain inconspicuous. He had kept his attraction to men a secret from everyone since no one other then Sirius seemed to have interest in what he truly wanted in life. He had come to realized it around the time of his third year after losing the match to Hufflepuff having gone to seek out Oliver and apologize coming upon the man drenched in rain, later to flourish even more during fourth year after several interactions with Cedric that had never come to fruition.

Thankfully it seemed as if luck was with him yet again. "Ero-sennin?" Ash asked curiously.

"Jiraiya-sensei," Nagato answered nonchalantly.

"Y-you know Ero-sennin!" The blonde exclaimed pointing at the man incredulously, his eyes bugged out.

Konan continued for her partner. "Jiraiya-sensei taught myself, Nagato and Yahiko when were kids in Amegakure during the rule of Hanzo the Salamander. He took pity on us and trained us as Shinobi in order to survive, if he hadn't we'd probably be dead." Recalling the nights the three were forced to hide in wherever they could just to see the next morning, even spending days out in the rain. Unlike Nagato there was no buried resentment deep inside of her for the man, she had considered a father, left them. Nothing good would have come from going to Konoha and abandoning their home, them remaining had given Ame the power they needed to overthrow Hanzo and making it a prosperous village it was today.

"Did he ever throw you off a cliff?" Naruto asked seriously.

"No, he made us wear frog suits."

Naruto stared. "...I don't know who had it worse me or you."

"I think it's fifty-fifty," Nagato retorted not unkindly.

The blonde was about to comment as the doors slide upon to reveal Lance. Tagging behind him were Clair and Delia following as six others trailed behind them; only one women and five men entered inside gaining their attention. Three of them were Shinobi, as all three of them were wearing kimonos walking with such grace and silence that could only be spotted by other Ninjas; the first one appeared to be a young man with tanned skin and expressionless gaze with short brunet hair wearing a white and blue kimono.

The second male appeared to be around the same age as the first one; his hair was longer then the first and was auburn opposing to the brunet. His kimono was pure black with tints of grey flickering as his body shift underneath the lights, he seemed calmer then his partner but disinterested at the same time. As the man appeared to be pre-occupied with his thoughts, however, the way he moved was not one of an amateur having carrying himself quite confidently.

The finale male was older than the two other-

"KOGA!" Ash remarked jumping at the sight of the man and his eyes flickered over to the burly man behind him. "Bruno!"

The old male smiled kindly. "It's good to see that you are in good health Ash. I was wondering when you were going to come and join us, actually." His kimono was his standard purple and black one, with the red scarf around his neck.

"Hey Ash, I've been watching your matches! You've come far from the little kid I remember training," The Elite Fighting type stated good-naturedly, as he gave the teen a rough pat on the back. Wincing as Ash gave a sharp cry from the pain, collapsing over from it. "Err..sorry, I guess I need to learn to control my strength still."

"I...it's fine...owww..."

A giggled echoed as a woman with long lavender hair, wearing a yellow tank top with triangle design at the top and barely covering her stomach along with yellow heels and white pants that had yellow circles running around her waist. Her hips moved seductively from side to side, making her way forward through the small ground allowing her eyes to get a good glimpse of the young teens and smiled. "So these are the ones," She stated. "I definitely approve."

"Don't go scaring them off now, Karen." Koga reprimanded the woman.

She rolled her eyes. "Oh please, Koga. I would never do that!"

"Ummm...Karen?" The redhaired girl repeated hesitantly.

"Yes?"

She gulped. "My name is Karin too. Except with an 'i'."

"That's just going to get confusing," Naruto said nodding sagely.

The older Karen, shook her finger. "Don't worry; I'm sure we can tell each other apart. For those that don't know, my name is Karen of the Johto Elite Four. My speciality is Dark types. I'll be handling your magic and medical training."

"I am Koga, the Poison Elite of the Johto Region," The older Shinobi introduced gruffly. "I shall be aiding you with your target practice, weaponry, traps and Pokemon-Jutsus."

Bruno waved. "Name's Bruno of the Kanto Elite, I specialize in fighting types. I don't know what I can do, but I'll be aiding you muscle building."

"I am Will the Psychic master of the Johto Elite," The purple haired man introduced himself with a dramatic bow. The man's clothing seemed to be mixture of a suite and a conductor's uniform as the suite and pants were dark red, with shirt purple and the best black. "I shall be teaching you to protect yourself mentally."

"Like Genjutsu?" Naruto asked.

The man nodded. "Precisely, but also helping overcome other intrusions as well."

"Excuse me, what exactly _are _Pokemon? Ash mentioned them because of Pikachu," Naruto brought up glancing at the electric rat that was playing with the owl, Hedwig, he recalled. "He only told us of the types of Pokemon."

"Pokemon are creatures with strange powers that exist in the world Ash and the rest of us hail from. Each Pokemon has a different type, for a lack of a better term." Koga explained calmly as he held up a ball, that was red and white as his finger pressed the middle button causing it to open and the room filled with a bright light revealing a giant purple moth. "This is my partner, Venomoth. A poison type, the type that I specialize in; not everyone had their own typing and prefer focusing on several types," His eyes flickered to Ash, whom flushed. "As an Elite and former Gym leader, it is required of us to use one type only in order to challenge and test trainers-people like Ash," Nodding towards the boy. "Whom at the age of ten, leave on their journey," smiling wistfully.

"Not that everyone does of course it's not the law or anything," Bruno added quickly.

Karen rolled her eyes. "It's a choice. Not mandatory. Now trainers can go into anything as education in our world does revolve heavily on Pokemon, the majority of them go on journeys to collect badges that are used to qualify for tournaments on the region the trainer travels to. There are eight badges in total, and four elites. Each of them using a specific type, as I said mine is Dark."

"Though as you are a part of the clan all of you will be receiving your own Dragon type, as custom and tradition." Clair answered, shortly. "Think of them similar to summons, only they have an element and can't speak human talk but are still dead useful in battle."

"Blunt," Lance informed her.

The woman shrugged. "It's what I do best."

"How do you earn these..._badges_," Karin, the red head, asked curiously.

"By battling," The man wearing the black kimono answered. "Oh, I'm also Ryu. I'll be training that guy over there," Pointing towards Naruto, whom looked surprised. "I'll be taking care of your Ninjutsu and Taijutsu abilities, no offense kid but they need tons of work. I'll get you up to scratch when I'm done with ya, that's a promise."

The man in white nodded. "Harry will be under my tutelage. Physical training-"

"And I'll be helping with magic." Karen, the elite, chirped smiling sexily at the teen.

Harry didn't look pleased at the revelation. He wasn't entirely a pacifist at heart but that didn't mean that the idea of creatures fighting against each other for the sake of another's enjoyment was something he would approve of. However, he kept his mouth shut for the time being glancing over towards the small yellow rodent and his owl, seeing them happily interact with each other. He would reserve his judgement until getting to know more about them.

"I'm not going to beat around the bush and get straight down to the point. Some of you are rather messed up." Lance stated his attention mainly focused upon the four younger members. "Because of the constraint we are forced to use _drastic _measures to ensure that you are capable and ready to handle what is to come."

Ash stared. "Drastic?"

"We decided," Karen began rubbing her temple. "That the best way to get the four of you up to scratch is to use a ritual of sorts that will, it will tap into your energy and turn your body backwards."

"Backwards?" Naruto repeated confused.

"You'll be de-aged, in a sense." Clair elaborated.

Harry stared. "You plan on using a temporal ritual in the Void of all places, to help jump start out training? Isn't that a bit dangerous and extreme?"

"Don't worry," The woman dismissed casually wearing a giant smile on her face. "It's completely safe; I've done it dozens of times! Just leave everything to little old me, alright? Now then," clapping her hands together she pulled the four together forming a small circle. "Hold each other's hands," grabbing their hands before placing them together. As she pulled out a small pouch from her pocket, loosening the tie and dove in proceeding to sprinkle a strange glittery powder around them. "_O goddess of time hear our please, turn back the clock so that we may see. Problems within and without, free from fear and doubt. Cleanse the body and soul, and reveal the power with no toll!"_

The powder shimmered slowly as the gleam became brighter and brighter surrounding the four and encase them in a small fog, lights brimming visibly to the outside ever so often before settling quietly and vanished without haste. The smoke cleared, as if had never been, and revealed four young children around the age of five or so.

"Well," Ash began, looking at his younger body wearing a light green shirt with a yellow bar across and blue jeans. His eyes flickered to his chubby young hands, lifting his head up and gazed around the room in awe. "This is so strange."

Naruto's head snapped all over the place. "M-my body? I really am young again!"

"It felt weird," came from Harry, dryly.

Karin hadn't made a comment, her long hair remained and her body was mostly covered up opposed to her teenaged attire still having her glass on her face looking rather uncomfortable. Just by her expression said everything she was thinking.

Nagato's lips twitched bemused.

"Oh Ash," Delia nearly squealed as she went over and pulled her de-aged son straight into her arms, into a bone crushing hug. "You look so cute!" Oblivious to the suffocation she was doing to her son, smiling happily. "Just like when you were really five years old!"

Lance coughed. "Delia, I really think you need to let go of him now."

"Hmm?" Blinking rapidly she returned to her son, instantly released him upon seeing the pale face. "I'm sorry Ash!"

"I...I'm fine," He responded gasping for air deeply, giving his mother a shaky smile. Regaining his composure and recover from the shortness of breath, he was finally able to ask the question that had been bothering him. "Hey mom, how do you and Lance know each other?"

An awkward silence appeared as Delia and Lance exchanged fleeting looks between one another, as his mother bite her lip and folded arms upon her chest looking at him while Lance stuffed his hands into his pockets as sweat beads rolled down his forehead. The growing tension wasn't hard to miss since no words had come from their mouths, not that it seemed either of the two was willing to say anything at all. The constant exchange of glances wasn't helping Ash's growing worry and anxiety.

Taking the initiative Karen leaned over and grabbed Harry by the collar. "Well we're off, toodles!"

"Let's go blondie," Ryu hauled Naruto over his shoulders and flickered away.

Bruno gently guided Karin out of the room, as Koga and Will aided Nagato and Konan to escaping the room leaving the three alone.

"Mom..."

Delia swallowed. "Ash...honey, you know I love you right?" He nodded confused, smiling tearfully at her son. "And that I'd do whatever it takes to protect you, no matter what the cost. Right?"

"...Mom," Ash was really beginning to worry as he looked up at Lance and darted back at his mother again. "What's going on?"

The woman smiled sadly. "Ash... meet your father."

"Hi...Son."

* * *

Karen smirked, running her hand through the long lengths of lavender holding her gaze upon the young boy sitting in front of her. The ritual she had preformed had been successful; in order to train the boys drastic measures had to be taken just to get the job done quickly and correctly via magic. Many people back in her home were oblivious to magic's existence only believing in the psychic power that many held such as Will and Sabrina as the Kanto leader of Saffron, the magical community was not a very large one and those that did have the power preferred to keep the themselves only coming together during certain celebrations or when the time called for it. Apart of her love for Dark Pokemon stemmed from her own magical abilities and the old fairy tales she had grown up with as a kid lead her to becoming whom she was today, even her clothing held a degree of significance to her powers.

Power wasn't everything, she knew that well. Only the selfish and narrow minded followed that particular philosophy in which case she made it her goal to crush them as quickly and painfully as possible, not the most eloquent way to teach but it served the purpose well. Of course, she was not above using dirty tricks in order to get her point across encase using brute strength hadn't. Having learned a few tips here and there from the Unova Elite of Dark Types, Grimsley, the man was an expert when it came to dirty fighting and winning the process, despite her initial annoyance with the man's laziness, Karen would admit that man knew how to battle. Being an Elite she didn't expect anything less from the man. If only Sidney, the other Dark Elite, could learn a thing or two from Grimsley perhaps he couldn't continue to give her a migraine every time they met!

Her eyes focused back on Harry looking him over carefully watching as the boy stared back at her, waiting for instructor keeping trained on her as she stared back at him. The dormant power that lay within the boy could be seen clearly through his eyes! It pained her to see such potential go to such utter waste, what exactly were those second-rate teachers of his doing? Thankfully, teaching was one of her specialities and thus that was exactly what she was going to do!

She sounded amused; briefly closing her eyes and slightly opening them afterwards. "Are you going to stand in the shadows all day or are you going to come over here and lend me a head? Not that I personally need it," her lips twitched fondly as the figure stepped out of the shadows revealing Hayate looking slightly irritable. "Here I thought you Shinobi were masters of concealment and stealth, I must say I'm rather disappointed."

Hayate's expression remained stoic and ignored the woman's words. "Have you already started?"

"About to actually," She answered.

The brunet man nodded briskly, sharply shifted his body towards Harry staring for several moments and nodded approvingly. "The first thing that we should probably check for possible blocks on his body, any type of anti-sealing-"

"Already done that, they were removed during the ritual." Karen clarified, smirked at the man seductively. "The ritual I used cleansed and removed anything and everything that could possible damper his abilities. It would do me or Harry good to have them on. I'm sure you understand," once again flipping her hair. "I figured starting with some magic would be the best thing, it is familiar to him."

Hayate frowned. "I think starting with physical training would have a positive effect before starting with magic, Karen."

"Hmmm," The lavender woman mused thoughtfully at the prospect. "You think so?"

"He will be trained as a Shinobi. Having him start now will benefit him and the clan in the long run," The man stated firmly.

The woman blankly stared, eventually nodding. "Very well, I shall leave the two of you then?"

"You may stay, if you wish to." Hayate informed politely.

Karen raised an eyebrow. "Hmmm tempting, wouldn't I be invading some important male bonding between cousins?"

"Not at all," The Shinobi began. "It might make training him much easier for me, as my knowledge of the mystic arts is slim at best. I'd rather have another perspective around if anything were to happen."

"Hmm playing to my sense of justice, evil." Karen remarked not unkindly. "I like that in a man."

The brunet man snorted. "Is that so? I'm surprised to hear that. After everything I heard from Wataru-sama."

"...And just what DID he tell you?"

"Nothing bad," Hayate rebutted truthfully struggling to keep the smirk off his face. "Only that you look rather cute when you're angry."

She pressed her lips together. "Ohhh them's fighting words they are."

Harry watched as Hayate and Karen continued to playfully exchange words, flirting back and forth openly and casually. There was a flash of smile here and there but they did not move closer to each other. It hadn't taken a genius to figure out that they did not find the other attractive rather they were simply going with the flow of the conversation, he could tell that it was beginning to die down as a laugh escaped their lips before looking at him and calming down.

Karen clapped her hands together. "Alright, how about we try Yoga? It will help clear and calm your mind and body, doing that Will can teach you have to build defences in your mind. Afterwards, I'm sure you'll want to being on some physical exercise?"

"Yes. Though at his current state I believe it would be best to until as your current bodies catches up a bit," The man gruffed out sternly, contemplating mentally. "We can start of movement of your body after your yoga, so you can get a good feel of your muscles and testing your reactions. From what I've been so far from the reports and tests, you are built as a speed fighter instead of a full out technique fighter like Naruto or an body fighter as Ash."

Harry blinked. "Body? Technique?"

"Yes," The brunet nodded briskly. "As you may be aware, Shinobi have various arsenal of abilities at their disposal. However, each person also falls under a category of where they draw the majority of their power from. Despite initial gaze, you may think that Naruto is a body type as he uses his entire being in body but that is false. He uses techniques in order from start to finish, repetitive as it is, that's his battle style. Now Ash on the other hand, is a body fighter as he does not use weapons for his disposal or techniques rather he uses himself."

"Or his Pokemon," Karen cut in.

Harry frowned, uncomfortably. "I still don't like the concept of capturing Pokemon and pitting them against one another for the sake of entertainment," It felt far too close to home for his liking having grown up confined in the cupboard. To see living creatures being kept in small balls didn't feel right to him.

"They are fighting creatures by nature," Karen responded gently as possible. "It's what they live for, striving to become stronger!"

"That doesn't necessarily make it right," Harry countered.

Hayate glanced towards the two, deciding to intervene quickly before escalating. "Regardless of whether Pokemon are for fighting or not; that is not the main issue here. We are here to focus on your training. _However,_" His held his gaze on the young boy. "You will receive your dragon partner soon enough, just as the rest of us have." Seeing the rebellious look on his cousin's face, he sighed. "You do not have to battle with your partner; some clansmen keep them around their quarters and help around the house."

"A waste in my opinion," Karen murmured quietly under her breath.

Hayate promptly ignored the comment. "As I was stating earlier you are a speed type fighter. I've noticed that you heavily reply on quick thinking, movements and dodging to get from one point to another. That is why, you will be trained in the art of parkour; the movement from a route in the quickest and effective manner possible." Seeing the spark of interest in the boy's eyes, he continued. "Of course we will not immediately jump into that as we must start at a beginning point, yoga as Karen suggested," the woman smirked. "Free running, to loosen your muscles and legs and then we will move up to more hands on work."

"With me I'll be doing remedial work and brushing you up on your magic," The woman informed. "Your magic, not entirely abysmal, needs work. _Lots_," The word was stressed and emphasis upon to the boy sitting in front of them just to get her point across. "Of work, from my understanding you barely know spells do you?" Arms folded upon her chest. "Do you know any enchantments? Summoning spells? Medical healing?"

Harry shook his head. "No...Karen," feeling small and ashamed at the same time, he hadn't even bothered to search for such magic during his time at Hogwarts. Not that there was ever a good time due to the relentless assaults to the school by Voldemort or simply trying to get through everyday life.

"That is something every magic user should know," The woman said strictly, only to sigh and shake her head. "It's not entirely your fault I suppose." Her face was buried into her palm, lifting her head to Harry's level. "Rest assured you will learn everything that I have to teach you, and you will memorise it before you leave her to return to your world, am I understood?" The sternness in her tone reminded him instantly of McGonagall and Hermione, causing him to smile slightly.

"Yes Karen," He repeated struggling not to laugh.

She looked satisfied and nodded happily. "Good, do you have a blank book?"

"No?" He answered, confused.

"Hmmm...I see," Karen mused, slightly annoyed in the beginning quickly vanishing. "Never mind then. Don't worry about it."

Harry and Hayate exchanged a look and shrugged in unison.

The older male cleared his throat. "Do you have any questions?"

"Well," Harry began slowly, trying to form the words from his brain to his mouth. "I know we're focusing on physical and magical aspects for my training, but isn't there anything else we should be working on? I recall Lance errr...I mean, Wataru-sama," correcting quickly as Karen and Hayate exchanged a smirk between themselves. "Mentioned Genjutsu and Fuuinjutsu so would I be learning those as well?" there was a vast number of things to learn about.

Hayate curled his lips. "That depends whether or not you have an affinity to it or not. Genjutsu for example, is not for everyone for illusions require the person to distort not only the enemy's perception but also their own. It's a dangerous art to learn. Fuuinjutsu is the same, only the talented and intelligent are skilled enough to use them to their full potential. It's what our clan is most famous for, so, yes you will learn it. Eventually, _when _we think you are ready," giving Harry a firm stare refusing to budge from the issue.

"Weaponry and obstacle courses are being done by Koga and Bruno-" Karen began.

"The guy with the muscles and the long dark hair, right?" Harry interrupted receiving incredulous stares as he shrunk in embarrassment.

The Elite snorted. "Yeah, that's Bruno alright. Koga will be helping with poisons and target practice."

"Is he a part of the clan?"

Hayate bit his lip. "Not exactly, during our time in the... Pokemon world, the Uzumaki clan was forced to make certain decisions in order to continue thriving. Merging with the Fuchsia clan was one of them, as well as the Dragon Clan. It has proved to be prosperous so far. However, he and his clan are family and have their own strengths."

"...So how do I address the others then?" Harry asked.

The older man shrugged. "Eh, that will do. He's a pretty laid back guy in reality, just don't slack off in his lessons and you'll be fine. Speaking of which," he rubbed his hands together and smirked at the young boy. "Time to get started!"

* * *

Naruto found himself shifting uncomfortable at the stoic stare from the man in front of him, Ryu hadn't said a thing since arrive to the large field that had been present in the backyard. It amazed him seeing such fertility in the ground, growing so naturally in such an environment. The sky hanged above looked rather normal, seeing and sensing no difference from the sky back in his world. The wind pressing up against him felt very real as well.

"It's a genjutsu. Kind of," Ryu murmured seeing the confused look on the blonde, he continued. "The sky is a genjutsu powered via generators and crystals in order to amply and expands to the necessary length and width which is required to help the planets grow and allow out bodies to absorb the sunlight," gesturing towards the sun. "Like the sky it's powered by sources of energy drawn from crystals and stones that we have salvaged during missions into other worlds. It may not be much, but its the way we have survived for this long."

"So it's artificial," Naruto mused looking thoughtful, and frowned. "Wouldn't the stones eventually run out of power?"

Ryu's lips twitched. "The stone are fully capable of being re-energized provided that they bath in natural sunlight for a certain length of time." Reassuring the boy as his expression became stern. "However, that isn't what we are here to discuss about. I'm going to be blunt about this; you're taijutsu is completely abysmal as is your Ninjutsu." As the boy opened his mouth to protest Ryu cut him off. "You spam Kage no Bunshin like no tomorrow and you rely too much on the Rasengan, which I believe was the Yondaime's secret technique. Am I wrong?" The blonde withered at his words. "At least you have the sense to use Kawari no Jutsu at the right times and your traps are absolutely an art form on it's own," chuckling on the beaming expression. "Your weaponry also needs work, but Koga will take care of it. I'll be focusing on Ninjutsu and Taijutsu for you. You are a Wind Element are you not?"

"Err...yes," Naruto answered begrudgingly, slightly ashamed of his weaknesses and proud of his strengths.

The older male stared. "What do you know of elemental chakra?"

"Errr..ummm well, that there's five: Lightning, Fire, Water, Earth and Wind. Wind is also the best offensive chakra," The blonde answered hesitantly having thinking it over.

"Basics then," Ryu concluded with a nod. "With having a Wind Chakra, you are weak to Fire but also strong against Lightning. As Lightning is strong against Earth but weak to Wind and so on, each Chakra element has a strength and weakness."

"What about two chakra natures making up into a Kekkai Genkai?" Naruto interrupted the man. "I mean, not everyone have that same nature right?"

Ryu nodded. "Well, it's not exclusive as you may think. One person from one village could have an Ice Kekkai Genkai due to having Wind and Water Chakra running through them. However, in another village there is a high possibility of someone else also having the same type of element but utilized differently. Are you following?"

The blonde nodded vehemently.

"Good. Now, just because you can have an affinity for Wind chakra doesn't mean you can't use other Chakra nature techniques. The only major difference is how much Chakra consumption that would be needed to use it and the less damage being done due to not being in toned with that nature," Ryu further elaborated to the boy. "Like you, I also have Wind Chakra, which is why I'm training you. But, unfortunately, when it comes to using elemental techniques outside of our affinity everyone is different."

"Just Wind Chakra and Taijutsu?" Naruto repeated, frowning raising an eyebrow sarcastically.

Ryu shot him a poisonous look watching as the boy squirmed underneath it. "Yes, I'll be teaching you Goryuken. The Five-Dragon fist, while it is not the strongest style or the best around doing exactly what is needed for."

"...What is that?"

The man's eyes flashed with an unreadable expression. "Making sure the job is done."

* * *

His Dad. HIS _FATHER._

After so many years of wondering, day in and day out of the identity of the man whom had brought him into the world, Ash had finally learned the truth. And now, he was having a difficult time grasping it. The world around him felt numb and started to unravel before his eyes at a pace so quick he was barely able to keep up. He didn't know how to feel or how to react at first, trying to let the information soak into his brain but nothing came from him. He was too stunned and hurt to just accept the reality in front of his very eyes. It was simply too much.

He couldn't understand why his mom had managed to hide everything about Lance, nor did he know the reasons behind it. Frankly, all things considering Ash wasn't sure if he even wanted to know. He had met Lance twice during his travels during Johto and Hoenn, not even once did the man mention anything to him at all!

_'So why the hell should I consider this guy my dad?'_Ash thought angrily glaring at the red haired man which was pointing towards the board allowing his mouth to run. Gripping the edge of his desk as hard as he could, Ash tried to ignore the boiling resentment and anger from surfacing further. Throwing a tantrum wouldn't solve anything, the only reason he was even in the room with Lance was because of his mother wanting them to bond and him to get training.

Other than that, their relationship would strictly be professional. There was no way in hell he was going to spend more time then was necessary with him.

Lance was fully aware of the fact that he was currently having holes being burned at the back of his head via his son. He could not honestly blame Ash for having such a low opinion of him-hating him even, not once in his son's life had he made an effort to get into contact with him and Delia or send a letter letting them know he was a live and well. No, Lance chose the path of a coward, keeping his mouth shut and avoiding the both of them like the plague.

He had been helluva surprised when Delia had accepted him back with such open arms! Provided he did the house and yard work for the next several years of his life. Which, really, Lance deserved and so much more but it was worth it. He could finally be with his family again and that was all that mattered to him-

"You're not even paying attention to a word I'm saying, are you?" He chided the teen.

Ash didn't even blink. "Hm? Oh, what you finally noticed? Wow, that didn't take very long now did it? I'm impressed. Then again, not noticing is really you're speciality. You must be slipping."

"That...that's something entirely different Ash." Lance managed to answer swallowing thinly, taken aback by his son's words. "Could you at least pay attention to what I'm trying to teach you? Please," mustered up a plea. "It's important."

"Just like Mom and I were to you?" Ash countered coldly.

Lance felt his blood ran cold, and felt his anger spike. "How _dare_you imply that! You don't even have an idea of what exactly is going on around, here do you? I love your mother and you, more then you can ever imagine!"

"Yet you just re-appear in our lives and we're supposed to welcome you back arms open, just like that?" Ash snapped at him, standing up and glaring at Lance. "You cannot just fly back into my life and say: 'Hey Ash, guess what? I'm your dad! Let's go and do father-son things!' That's not the way it works."

Lance rubbed his temple, unable to deny what Ash had said. "I...I know that."

"You know what?" Ash asked, staring at him intensely before shifting into a expression of disbelief. "I don't think you do." He grabbed his jacket from the chair and stormed out the room leaving the man standing alone at the front.

* * *

Chapter Eight-End.

So training beings followed by plot and drama! Don't you just hate the fact that I left you with a cliffhanger? Make sure to stay tuned to find out what happens next! Once again I want to thank everyone whom reviewed, you guys are what keeps this fic going and my beta Alec McDowell for doing such a great job!

Remember constructive criticism makes me happy!


	4. Convention

Chapter 4

Ever since Ash had walked out on Lance's training he had resorted to seeking tutelage under Koga, and practically avoided his father with a passion. His training seemed to flourish under the poison shinobi, the man kept his silence about the situation deciding to go with it and teach the young man what he knew; from simple knife throwing to foot work. The basics of the basics, gaining the knowledge of the beginnings in order to perfect and learn to improve upon them as they slowly moved onto to the more difficult steps, however, the man had held off on teaching Ash any jutsus as he believed it would benefit his student to work off the amount of stress that had been built up over the years.

Ash seemed to have fallen into the habit that all teenagers eventually developed. Containing their emotions and bottling them away as they ignored the problem before them. As Koga had a teenager daughter that had gone through (Or rather was currently going through) and had use this previous method to help Janine, with her problem, it made sense in his mind to do the same for his young student. He had noted the sheer frustration emitting from the other male, almost leaking out like a faucet as Ash continued to conceal the emotions. Then again, no one could blame him for doing so after everything he had enduring and to discover that his father was none other than Champion Lance was just too much for him to handle.

Now the boy used that anger, that drive helped push him further into his training day in and day out getting better with each test Koga put him through. While the young teen hadn't passed them all with flying colors, he was proud at seeing how creative Ash could get...and how destructive the results were. Thankfully, neither of them had to do the clean up.

From the assessment of his test Koga had kept a record of where Ash's strengths and weaknesses laid in, and just what type of Shinobi he'd be best trained as. Many ideas had come to mind as the boy had proven to be an exceptional physical fighter; possessing good reaction time and strength, but lacked on speed while his endurance and durability were very impressive and made up for it. Ash also seemed to possess rather excellent accuracy with kunai and shuriken but fell upon close weaponry combat. Which in hindsight wasn't entirely important, not every shinobi needed to be on the field.

However, he had yet to test and train him in the arts of using techniques due to the fact Ash had not discovered his chakra affinity which Koga was planning on Lance doing. A torn relationship between him and Ash would need to repair, Koga did not feel right teaching the boy certain things that a father should. However, that did not mean he had approved of the way his friend had handled things involving his family and admitted to himself rather guilty, was glad at seeing Lance reaping for what he sewed. It was justice.

But that did not mean he wanted to take Lance's place as Ash's his means of a father. The resentment and bitterness that he held towards the champion was well founded, it had to be dealt with and quickly. Every child needed their parent in some shape and form. Besides, Koga didn't feel right training Ash in using Jutus anyway. Speaking of which...

"Alright," He murmured loud enough for the raven haired teen to hear, eyeing Ash sternly. "That's enough push ups. I want you to do sixty sit ups now, three rotations. Let's go!"

Ash grunted and went into the position, proceeding to do the task. "Why..are...you...making...me...do...this?"

"To help build up your muscles of course," Koga answered calmly, sitting on the large boulder staring down at the young man. "While the exercise is indeed mundane, is it necessary and simple enough to help your body develop and adjust to routine."

The teen raised an eyebrow, continuing his work out but, did not question the man's words and continued his sit ups as he eventually came to a finish. Promptly standing from the ground, Ash let out a long yawn and began to stretch his arms the energy followed through him like never before. The spell that Karen had casted allowed them to go be de-aged and grow back to their original ages during what seemed to be a six months time that equaled up to six years. And with time, came change. A great deal of it.

Ash kept some of his previous features but had gained a good deal of height, once he was only 5'5 and now had sprouted to 5'7. His hair had stayed large the same but, had had been cut in a few places and kept a small ponytail at the back of his head. One thing that Ash had lost was the baby face he had and throbbing muscles that formed during his training, it wasn't bulky and heavy as Bruno's, but was still useable in combat nonetheless. It first the new body felt awkward and too heavy, far different from his old one. Eventually he had come into his skin, becoming more comfortable in it as time had gone by.

"So what's next for today?" Ash asked, energetically, as he did some squats waiting for the man to respond.

The shinobi was silent thinking over what else that needed to be done. "A spar between you and I perhaps?"

"Eh?" Ash stated blinking at the older man watching as a smirk slide upon his face, and slowly a smirk slide upon his face. "That... sounds nice actually. I'm up for it!"

"I knew you'd say that," Koga remarked standing up on the boulder and leaped into the air, doing a somersault and landed gracefully on his legs standing in opposition towards Ash. His arm pointed towards his directed, gesturing towards himself with two fingers. "Come at me, Ash. Show me what you've learned under me!"

The teen shifted his feet on the ground staring hard at the older male, kicking back and lunging forward swinging his fist first towards Koga. The shinobi jumped to the side effectively dodging the attack and thrusting his palm towards Ash, stabbing the boy in the rib. A cry of pain escaped from his lips as he slide on the ground, the throbbing pain pulsed steadily, Ash gripped the side changing his tactics to a more defensive position. His eyes remained trained on Koga, and carefully moved to the side observing as the man mirrored his movements. His throat went dry the longer the staring contest continued, neither of them made a move waiting for any opening that could be exploited.

Ash knew that he couldn't beat the man on a full frontal assault. He needed a plan and fast, the longer he waited the more Koga had time to use it to his advantage. So far the man had always seemed to win during the spars, the gap of experience was deep but that didn't mean Ash couldn't overcome it. Experience meant nothing if one got cocky. He had learned that lesson more than once over the years.

He gulped thinly, upon stopping in one place.

Before he could even react Koga's wrists had snapped quickly throwing kunai and shuriken at him, taking Ash by surprise. His instincts told him to jump out of the way as the sharp weapons darted quickly, Ash grabbed a shuriken attached to his hip and used it as a shield, blocking the sharp as they pounded hard it. His arm wavered from the barrage, the strength began to waver and was pushed up against the wall. He gritted his teeth, peeking through the side before quickly hiding behind the star-shaped weapon again.

Placing one foot onto the wall Ash kicked off and leaped over the stream of kunai, doing a backflip into the air as he landed right behind Koga. His arm whipped towards him attempting to slash the man as the shinobi grabbed his arm slamming his palm into the exposed section, creating a jolt of pain once again. Ash hissed loudly through his teeth lifting his left leg to kick the man away, hitting directly into the right side forcing Koga to release his arm and then again using the same leg to slam down. Koga rolled away instinctively whipping out another kunai, remaining crouched down looking at him with a steely gaze. Seeing it as an opening Ash charged over as fast as he could jump into the air throwing the shuriken at the man.

Anticipating the attack, the man leaped out of the way and copied the strategy that Ash had just used. The two airborne, nearly collided with each passing moment, pulled the opposite arm backward and thrust forward with all their strength straight into the other's face. The two continued to float in the air, and dropped like an anvil landing onto the ground passing each other on the way. Their backs were pinned against each other for neither of them moved, together they formed themselves to stand.

Suddenly, Ash dropped to his knees and touched the stinging sensation noting as blood slipped down his face.

"Damn it!" He cursed loudly at the sight of it.

Koga turned his head, and chuckled. "Once again it seems victory is mine. You've gotten better."

"Apparently not enough," Ash disagreed looking at the stain of blood that reeked from his fingers. "I barely was able to outwit you."

The shinboi sighed, shaking his head. "You did well. Much better than last time, however," Ash perked up at that. "You do still need improvement. But, you can take solace in the fact that you've grown in your training. I'd say you'd at least be chuunin by now."

"Doesn't feel like it. You were able to cut me so easily," The teen murmured underneath his breath, feeling discouraged.

"Do not forget, my student. I am a great deal older than you are," Koga chided not unkindly. "I am about twice your age and I have been an activate shinobi since my birth while you have just started. Give it time Ash and you'll see the fruits of your dedication." His smiled kindly at the younger male, and headed towards the door. "Now then, I am going to get some tea. I skipped my morning one. You are welcome to join me if you so wish to."

"I was actually going to go and see what Naruto and Harry are up to," Ash answered truthfully. "And check up on Pikachu, he's probably still asleep in my room." Pikachu usually joined him during his training sessions, but today he had decided to let his partner sleep in for a change. Especially after all the hard work he had put in, helping him practice the basic foot works and the art of kunai throwing.

Koga chuckled. "I'm glad to see that you're getting along with your cousins. In that case I shall see you later then," He gave the raven haired boy a nod, before disappearing through the door leaving Ash all alone outside.

He hadn't followed immediately and remained outside taking in a glimpse of the area where the spar had taken place. Both eyes stared intently, Ash then turned and went inside proceeding down the halls of the compound. Despite not many family members around, the place was not only large but confusing to navigate. After two decades the Uzumaki managed to build a large enough household, to not only be equal to a small manor but had their own onsen as well!

Frankly, it amazed Ash that his family had managed to survive for so long. Pride swelled inside of him, proceeding down the halls in an attempt to locate his two cousins, wherever they could be. All of them usually trained during the early morning straight until noon, sometimes past depending on what needed to be done for that day. It was organized and effective. Because of that, Ash and the others were able to finally catch up with everyone else... to an extent. He wasn't entirely sure if they had reached the same level as the rest of the clan members. The noticeable gap between their skills and the rest of the Uzumaki's was giant cavern in his opinion.

But, that didn't mean that they wouldn't be able to catch up one day. In time they would be able to be just as strong, if not stronger. It simply took patience and hard work.

After training under Koga for so long, Ash felt his eyes open to the world and began to realize things that he hadn't before probably because he had someone that didn't dismiss his questions instead they clarified in manner he understood. Not only that, Ash himself had started to have epiphanies, especially towards his Pokemon training. During his journeys he had trained, but he hadn't trained enough. Granted, Ash wasn't about to take a page out of Paul's book and drive his friends into the brink of death, rather he needed to come up with new methods for training and help his team push past their limits.

Unfortunately, he hadn't been able to find anyone that was willing to help him making a new training regime due to them busy training the others, whom had no clue about Pokemon, and everyone else he hadn't met yet and hadn't gained the courage to ask them.

It just didn't feel right to him. Going up and asking someone; "Hey do you want to have a Pokemon battle?" even in his head did it sound lame. Hopefully, once he returned back to his world maybe than Koga or one of the others would be able to help then. Normally, Ash would have asked Koga during the time spent under him, but even he had realized that his time had to be devoted to his physical training rather than his Pokemon training.

Letting out a powerful yawn he went into the longue and lazy raised his hand, greeting the other two that were in the room. "Hey Naruto, Hey Harry. Done training for the day?" Ash then proceeded into the room and dropped into one of the free seats, allowing himself to slide against it. It felt wonderful.

"Karen and Hayate are letting me take a break as long as I finish this chapter," answered Harry, whom pried away from the book in his hands, briefly placing it on to the table. Just like him, the wizard let out a tired yawn and stretched out his arms. "Urgh, I've been up since four in the morning studying this," his eyes darted towards the thin brown book. "It's an advanced text of rituals that she wants me to learn. I already went through all of my schools books."

Harry had been getting a mix of magical and physical training, switching between the two every so often and at the same time, forcing him to adjust during combat whenever reaction is necessary to counter an attack. Some of his training, however, required him to do research and re-learn everything from scratch if just to master the spells he had already knew previously. There had been days when Ash had seen Harry simply sitting in a chair writing down notes for hours on end. He hadn't know what the younger male was learning and was rather curious to know, as the other boy groaned and returned to the book within his hands.

Ash grimaced. On second thought, perhaps not...

Like Ash, the other boy himself had also went under a great deal of change as Harry had also grow an inch or two from when he had first appeared and his skin managed to gain a bit of a tan which in his opinion was a good thing. Harry was far too pale. And unfortunately, it seemed that the other boy was deemed to continue having his unruly and wild hair that sprouted long enough to cover the scar on Harry's forehead. Ash knew how much his cousin dislike it having he had seen Harry shift uncomfortably with it was brought up or change the subject while attempting to hide it beneath his bangs. Not that he knew why since no one asked Harry about it. Whatever the reason Ash was sure it was a good one.

Naruto grinned wildly. "Well I've been doing nothing but training and learning new jutsus, it's never been better!"

"Weren't you also doing remedial work too?" Harry rebutted from his book, not even glancing up at the blonde and flipped a page, his eyes were firmly glued to the book and his hand wrote on a small notepad that could barely be seen.

The blonde winced, but cracked another grin. "Y-yeah, but I've already caught up on that stuff!"

"If you say so," Harry returned, this time tearing himself away and locked directly on the other male giving him a sincere look. "I believe you," And chuckled as the blonde beamed with pride. "So what did Ryu teach you?"

"Some taijutsu, which I really needed anyway. I can't exactly go into a fight throwing my fists all over the place, right?" Naruto stated in a thoughtful tone, and shrugged. Ryu taught him the basics of their family fighting style, building his muscle and testing his reaction time as they sparred daily. "He also taught me a few Ninjutsus since I don't know that many," he scratched his cheek in embarrassment, it wasn't for a lack of trying either whenever he tried to get into the library he would be deterred, harassed until he left or simply turned away by whomever was there. Kakashi and Jiraiya hadn't been much help either when added to his arsenal, Jiraiya had at least showed him the way to break free from Genjutsu and Kakashi...taught him nothing except tree walking.

At least with Ryu something of actual use was being taught to him! The downside to the man's training was his repulsion towards Naruto's jumpsuit and anything coordinating to the color orange! In fact the man shredded the day after training!

...At least he compensated with a new one.

Guilt had gotten to Ryu after destroying his uniform providing him with a new orange shirt with a new pair of black sandals, black shorts and black jacket with a white sash that wrapped around his waist that held the Uzumaki family crest. It was different from his usual attire, but it felt snug against his body and comfortable to wear, not feeling confined and restricted to his old uniform. Unlike the two though, Naruto hadn't really changed all that much from when he had first arrived looking mostly the same with a few minor differences, his skin was a bit darker and his muscles were more refined.

The door opened not a moment later revealing Clair, still wearing her updated dress and cape that she had been when they had first arrived. Granted, though she had slipped into something else everyone in awhile but that seemed to be her standard look.

"Alright you three, it's time to get you into the Dragon Den," She announced with finality in her voice leaving no room for them argue, standing proudly with a large smile spreading across her face staring at them maternally. "I can't believe so much time has passed! You will be so excited!" She almost squealed with happiness, slightly acting out of her nature. In fact, it was straight to creep them out as the cheerful attitude of her remained. "We can't keep everyone else waiting so let's go!"

Ash frowned as they left their seats and followed them woman out of the room, down the hall. "What exactly is the Dragon Den?"

"The Dragon Den has been a part our clan since ancient times, as each member goes into the Den to receive their dragon partner," Claire answered without hesitation, she didn't bother looking back at them. "However, before you are able to acquire your partner, you must answer a series of questions. I, myself, have been put through it. Whether your answer right or wrong does not matter as you will receive your dragon, but bare in mind that I have not been able to pass the trial either." She folded her arms against her chest, pressing her thin lips together. "Still I..." her voice trailed off.

"...Claire?" Harry asked, worried about the woman. Why wasn't she able to pass the test and how did it connect to her sudden thoughts?

The woman shook her head. "No... it's nothing, do not concern yourselves with it. Come now, this way." Her pace seemed to increase speeding along through the long halls of the compound, saying nothing along the way as they came towards a strange large door that was reminiscent of the medieval age; the handles were in the shape of dragon heads as two statues on both sides were also of dragons. The woman turned sharply, arms folded against her chest and gazed over them silently. An unreadable gleam flashed briefly, replaced with a stoic look. "This is where I leave you, unfortunately, the rules state that I am unable to accompany you farther than this."

"And this leads to the Dragon Den," Harry assumed, shifting his body defensively as his eyes narrowed into dark slits staring at the door. "Is it dangerous?"

Claire closed her eyes tightly and reopened them. "I won't lie. It can be if you are unprepared for what lies inside, but myself and the others are confident that you three will be just fine. After all," Her lips twitched warmly. "You've come far." Her eyes then hardened, sharply turning around grabbing hold of the handles and opened it, revealing the dark path before them. "Now go!"

"Not like you're giving us a choice," Naruto pointed out with a shrug, but the grin on his face betrayed his words as he excitedly charged forward. "Let's go!"

Harry shook his head, fighting off the grin that seemed to appear. "Hold on we're right behind you. We'll be back soon, Claire!"

"Don't worry we'll be fine," Ash reassured the woman, before they too charged into the pitch black known as the Dragon Den.

Claire watched as her three teens entered the cave leaving herself behind, alone staring as the doors closed loudly behind her cousins. After spending a few moments looking on into space, she shook her head firmly and turned away.

She had done her part. Now the rest fell on to them.

* * *

The door lead them straight into a dark and damp cave, lacking any source of light that was accompanied by the annoying dripping of water that fell from the ceiling echoing every second in tandem of their movement. Thankfully as far as they were able to tell there was only one path going straight, Harry and Naruto had taken to covering the walls encase more paths decided to appear in front attempting to deterring them from where they were supposed to head to. Unfortunately, the lack of visibility made things difficult putting themselves into a disadvantage. Upon entering the cave, Harry tried to use a _lumos _spell to light up the room and Ash called upon one of his fire-types to help Harry however, magic didn't seem to work and whenever Ash tried again to seek aid from his Pokemon they'd instantly returned to their Pokeballs without manifesting from them. To make things worse, Naruto found himself unable to use chakra within the cavern.

Frankly, the three were starting to wonder was going on as they become wary and suspicious of the cave the longer they went. The good part so far was they had yet to be attacked, but that didn't mean that they would allow themselves to let their guards down. After all, nothing was certain especially where they were. Ash cursed himself for not brining Pikachu with them, but his partner deserved a nice long rest, he didn't want to awake him. A sigh escaped his lips, squinting his eyes attempting to pry into the thick darkness of the cave trying to find something... anything that would help them!

Suddenly, a strange scent filled the air, a mixture of salt and water, causing the three to halt in their footsteps exchanging looks of confusion between one another.

Harry's tingled and let out a sneeze. "Urgh, what is that smell?"

"It..." Ash frowned and sniffed the air carefully, rubbing his nose in the process. "Seems like the ocean?"

Naruto's eyebrows furrowed together, striking a thinking pose. "Why would there be an ocean in here?"

"Some caves do have underwater channels that seem outside and straight into the ocean," Harry explained, once again letting out a sneeze. "Don't tell me I'm allergic to salt!" The idea made him cringe at the thought. It wasn't something to be ashamed of, but still! He held up his hand, covering his mouth and nose. "Let's just hurry and get out of here."

Ash chuckled. "Nah, don't worry about it. An ocean's scent is strong, especially for someone that's never been to one before. Don't worry it will eventually go away!"

"Good," Harry remarked dryly grimacing.

"Are we almost at the end?" Naruto asked impatiently, tapping his foot irritably looking annoyed.

"Calm down, Naruto." Harry chided the blonde haired boy, not unkindly and sighed heavily. "We're probably almost at the end, we just need to keep going is all. I bet another few feet, we'll arrive to exactly where we need to be."

The Konoha shinboi pouted. "I hope so, all this waiting is getting to me!"

"Look at this way," Ash began wearing a cheerful grin on his face and draped an arm over his cousin's shoulder. "I'm sure we'll get to something super cool! It is the Dragon's Den!"

That seemed to get the blonde's attention, as Naruto instantly beamed at Ash's words grinning alongside the other boy. "Maybe they'll teach us some super cool dragon technique or let us watch a battle!"

"Or something else that's cool!" Ash gushed at the idea and grinned, as they two immersed themselves into what could possibly happen.

Harry smiled at the two, turning his back at them and continued on silently ahead watching carefully as they went deeper into the cave. However, he had to admit that Ash brought up an interesting point, or rather what he'd think would happen to them. Why did they send them into the Dragon's Den anyway and importantly, for what purpose? None of them had been told much about the Dragon's Den, as none of their trainers had explained about, and hadn't brought it up. Sure, Claire had informed them that they'd be getting a dragon partner..but...

Nothing was that simple. Not for him at least. There had to be more to this than what Claire had told them, she had brought up what was required of them, the questions and answers. But why inform them of it? Shouldn't it have been kept secret it?

Whatever the reason was, Harry needed to keep a cool head about it. He gripped tightly upon his wand and glared hard, in front. He wouldn't let his cousins get hurt because of him, not after what happened to Cedric back in June.

His teeth gritted together angrily as the memory surfaced, the haunting image of the Hufflepuff laying dead before his very feet was something that would forever be carved into his memory. Back then, he had been unprepared and allowed his childishness to cloud his judgement, if he hadn't coerced Cedric into taking the cup with him the other boy would be alive today! Never again would he allow someone else to die because of that. He had to...no, Harry shook his head. He needed to get stronger, to have the power to protect everyone. Even if it was a little bit, he would be satisfied with it. He was not greedy by any means and truly cared little for power.

After all, they were far more important things in life such as friends and family.

"Harry?"

The emerald eyed boy blinked, snapping out his stupor looking at the concerned looks of Ash and Naruto. "H-huh, what is it?"

"Are you alright?" Ash asked, his frowned present, his eyes filled with concern and seriousness. "You've been silent for an awful while now, what's on your mind?"

Naruto nodded firmly. "Yeah, tell us! We're family after all!"

Family. The word struck a cord in his heart, the way it had been said and conveyed was different. Harry wasn't entirely certain how to express the feeling, still being rather new to the concept of having an actual family, outside of Sirius, whom he had come to regard as a father figure, godfather title be damned. To have blood-related members that truly cared in a way that the Dursleys never had. Using the term 'nice' was an understatement to what was beating inside of him, but he knew that it didn't matter. As long as it was there, it was fine with him.

"I'm fine," Harry dismissed honestly, wearing a smile. "I was just thinking is all, nothing to worry!"

Naruto and Ash looked doubtful, but reframed from commenting.

"What? I am!"

Ash rolled his eyes. "Sure, we believe you. _Right_Naruto?"

"_Mhmmm_," The blonde nodded, wearing slyly with the other boy, giving Harry a pointed stare as his smile curved.

Harry rolled his eyes. "You're both incorrigible!"

"But you love us," Ash teased with a wide grin on his face.

"You can't get rid of us," Naruto added happily.

Harry snorted, cracking a grin."Oh I so could!" As the three burst out into laughter, and felt a sudden shift in his weight as his body fell forwards landing abruptly on the ground; chin first. His body jolted in pain, which was quickly forgotten upon hearing a strange sound gently echo through his mind finding himself staring before the radiant water that splashed against the rocks. He blinked rapidly as he got up. "The hell?"

"Look at that!" Naruto nearly shouted pointing straight towards a giant house that was at the far end of the Dragon's Den, the structure was reminiscent of a feudal Japan with the room being painted red and the rest of it was a light shade of brown and yellow.

Ash whistled. "Now that's what I call a house!"

"It's definitely impressive," Harry remarked bewildered nodding in agreement with Ash, his eyes were focused upon it. "It reminds me of the compound, in a way."

"Wouldn't surprise me," Ash said, looking away at Harry. "There are many houses back in my world that use this type of style-"

Naruto cut him off. "Same here!"

"Oh," Harry stated with surprise, he didn't know much about the worlds that his cousins came from as what he had learned about from came from Karen and Konan, whenever he managed to take a break from training. "Wait a minute why aren't Karin and Nagato here? Shouldn't they be with us?" The frown of his face also appeared on the other two, appearing worried and uncertain. "Why aren't they?"

"I'm sure they're fine!" Naruto reassured Harry, nervously. "I-I mean Nagato and Karin are family, I doubt that they're hurt. They're probably just training!"

Ash nodded. "We need to get across the water, but how?" He thought for a moment as a grin appeared on his face and rubbed his hands together, flicking his wrist downwards and grabbed a Pokeball. "Alright, Staraptor I choo-"

"It won't work remember?" Harry stated dryly, watching as Ash nearly tripped over his own feet. "You tried it at the entrance."

The raven haired teen winced, and scratched his cheek. "O-Oh yeah...kinda forgot about that," A silent sigh manage to escape his mouth. Then how where they supposed to across the waters anyway? "This at least explains the scent."

"We can always try Water Walking," Naruto suggested, and found himself staring into the twin dried expressions. A surge of anger appeared, slashing his arm to the side roughly. "Just watch!" Curtly stepping forward he placed his hands together circulating his chakra straight to his feet, then taking the initiative and place his foot onto the water before adding the other. A proud grin instantly spread ear to ear on his face.

Harry blinked. "But I thought we couldn't use Chakra or magic in here!"

"Maybe it isn't that we aren't, but rather we have to be creative about it," Ash murmured thinking it over intently. "Look," he began to explain. "Naruto originally tried using a jutsu, right? But we can see him clearly using chakra to keep himself above water, so maybe we just have to use what we have in a different manner."

"I...think I get it," Harry murmured glancing at his wand briefly slowly placing it back into his pocket. Calming down his body, as his shoulders slowly started to relax. His chest rose and settled on and off as he breathed air in and out. His eyes closed tightly envisioning himself using the levitation charm, his entire being becoming weightless, floating off the ground.

"H-Harry!"

Ash's yelp brought him back to reality, and snapped his eyes open, looking towards the other boy. "What? What's wrong?"

"Y-you...l-look!"

Harry blinked slowly and looked down, his jaw nearly dropped. "I-It worked?!" He was literally floating above the ground, a smile broke out onto his face. "I can't believe it!"

"Isn't magic kinda like chakra?" Naruto asked with a frown, watching as the emerald eyed boy floated over towards him, his smile became nervous and uncertain watching as Harry up and down in circle like motions. "You sure you have control over that thing?"

Harry pressed his lips together, trying to find some way to explain. "Magic and Chakra have similarities to each other, since their both energy based. Anyone can do it, Hayate has been teaching me some Chakra controls; just so I'd be able to grasp the difference between them. Chakra relies more upon the nerve system to circulate Chakra that stems to your inner core, while magic is able to draw from the entire core without restraints but, you also need a good mental image of what you're trying to do to make the magic work."

"So Chakra is physical and energy, while magic is spiritual and mental?" Ash asked from the sidelines, watching in envy as they managed to discover away to get across the water with such ease. The only thing he had his disposal was his Aura, unfortunately no one in the compound seemed to have much knowledge of it. The one person that he could really think of that knew how to use Aura was the man known as Riley, the last time he had seen him was on Iron Island before he had joined Professor Caroline, after that he didn't really know what had happened to him.

"We can help you get across," Harry offered.

Ash sighed and held out his hand. "Please?"

"No problem," Naruto retorted with a grin on his face, grabbing onto Ash's hand and hauled the other boy over towards him onto the water which thankfully, Ash was able to stand over. "How come you haven't gotten to Water Walking yet?"

"Not a fan of the water," Harry answered dryly.

The blonde seemed to understand, nodding.

"How long can you keep this up?" Ash asked, eyes darting from the water back to the blonde. "I'm not going to slip and fall am I?"

"I have tons of chakra so no worries!" Naruto boasted with a huge grin on his face.

Ash snorted. "Yeah, yeah just get us there please?"

"Race ya," Naruto challenged Harry, promptly ignoring the other boy's gawking.

Harry blinked, his eyes narrowed and a smirk slide upon his face. "Think you can beat me?"

"Definitely," The blonde answered confidently.

Without any warning at all Harry dashed past the two hastely, smirking upon doing so. Naruto and Ash grinned narrowly and chased after the other boy, following behind him at a great distance, turning sharply upon the water to increase his speed. The feeling of the wind pressed up against him the faster that he went and looked back to finally notice the gap, a tingle of excitement shot through him letting out a small laugh. His eyes narrowed as he span around the rock that he nearly collided into, and shot forward.

"Hey! Wait for us!"

Harry turned back. "I thought you said you could beat me!"

Naruto scowled, shaking his fist.

"That's what you get for challenging me!" Harry teased loudly, with a giant grin on his face.

Ash looked at Naruto. "He's right you know."

"Aren't you supposed to be on my side?" Naruto snipped at him dryly.

"Oh, am I?" Ash retorted smiling innocently at the other boy.

The blonde responded by sticking out his tongue.

"Very mature," The trainer remarked rolling his eyes, grinning nonetheless as Naruto glared mockingly at him tightening the grip on him as he let out a sharp yelp. "You did that on purpose, didn't you?" He accused the blonde.

Naruto ignored him, rushing forward pouring all of his concentration on catching up on to Harry even throwing out his arm to grab on hold to the boy, only to miss and nearly slip head first straight into the water. He managed to spin his body around and push back up to regain his posture. Needless to say Ash hadn't been very fond of the action as he had gotten somewhat wet in the process, and glared at the oblivious blonde and watched as Harry sat on the railing waiting for them.

"Looks like we know who won," Ash commented dryly, the glare still present. "Next time, don't challenge him."

"Yeah, yeah," Naruto pouted rolling his eyes, skidding to a halt as they approached the dark haired boy. His eyes narrowed darkly as Harry grinned wildly at them. "Not one word."

Harry raised an eyebrow. "I wasn't going to say anything..." It was true, he wasn't. Boasting his achievements and rubbing in people's faces wasn't his thing as he didn't really seen the point it anyway. Besides, he didn't really understand why people should even know about his achievements anyway.

Before Naruto could say anything scratching Ash quickly cut him. "H-Hey now, let's just head inside!"

"Sounds good to me-" Harry began shifting over the railing, and came to a stop finding himself looking straight into several large eyes that stared back at him with curiosity. Slowly, he dropped himself to the ground and bent, his eyes never waved and kept a firm level. There was no sign of maliciousness in the air, trusting in his instincts he held out his hand. "C'mon, I won't hurt you." His eyes softened and smiled gently. "We mean no harm, I promise."

Slowly, one by one small reptile like creatures emerged from the darkness, each and every one of them were rather small and actually, cute. Their eyes continued to glow with awe up at him, looking as if they were waiting for him to do something, anything at all. The feeling of pressure was in the air and pressing upon Harry's shoulders.

"My name is Harry," He introduced kindly, darting his eyes from one to another. The one in the front was a small light blue dragon in the shape of a ball with a large fin upon the top looking more like a shark while on the right side was a small blue creature with a strange skull like helmet upon the forehead sliding downwards at the back, shifting it's feet shyly and glancing up at him every so often. Harry smiled gently at that one, before turning his attention to the small orange like lizard that blinked lazily at him. The onyx eyes told a different story, though, and shifted his attention away. Behind him was a small green dragon that appeared to have two tusks coming out of the sides and another dragon covered in black fur with blue skin; it's face was completely covered only revealing it's mouth.

"Oh wow, Dragon Pokemon!" Ash exclaimed excitedly, his eyes danced happily at the mere sight of them. "This is awesome!"

Naruto blinked. "Dragon Pokemon? Really?" The boy laughed and smirked at the small creatures, waving his hand dismissively. "They don't look like much to me!" All of the creatures, on cue, turned towards Naruto glaring at him angrily before unleashing an barrage of attacks, hitting the blonde straight on. Naruto was burnt to a crisp letting out a small cloud of smoke. "C... can't you take a joke? Urgh," and promptly fainted on the ground twitching madly.

"Next time think before you say something, Naruto." Harry sighed, shaking his head at his cousin's actions.

Ash held his hand over his mouth, trying to conceal the laughter at the scene. "Y-you totally deserve that, man!"

"I'm sorry about him, Naruto's has a bit of a motor mouth," Harry apologized to the dragons, once again gaining their attention. The blue one, blinked at him slowly stepping forward before leaping straight into his arms burying himself into his chest. Bewildered, Harry remained stunned and slowly stroked the blue dragon's back "Hey now, what's wrong little guy?"

"I think Bagon likes you," Ash answered with a grin.

"Is that what this Pokemon is called?" Harry asked curiously, chuckling as the dragon made himself uncomfortable on his lap. "S-stop that, it tickles!"

The dragon looked up and grinned. "Bagon!"

"See?" Ash pointed out. "He does like you!"

"So what are others called?" Harry asked, attempting to stand up holding Bagon closed so that he wouldn't drop the poor thing.

"That one over there is called a Gible-" The moment Ash said the name, one of his Pokeball's burst open to reveal another Gible, standing protectively in front of them glaring at the others. He blinked rapidly in confusion. "H-hey, Gible what's going on here?"

"Gible!" The dragon growled holding both arms out, staring down the other dragon types.

Ash frowned. "H-hey what's with you Gible?" Grabbing his Pokeball, he held it up. "Alright Gible, return!" The flash of red light appeared zapping the small dragon back inside, as he sighed with relief...only for the ball to burst open again with Gible once again standing in front of him. "Okay seriously, what the hell?"

"Maybe he's being territorial?" Harry offered. "Most dragons are where I came from." The image of the Horntail entered his head, he shuddered at the memory.

"I guess," The other boy remarked, shaking his head with a sigh. "That's enough Gible, I'm not going to leave you here."

His Gible turned towards him and grinned. "Gible!"

"U-urgh...g-guys...h-help..." The strangled voice called from behind. Naruto's body was completely wrapped together by a long blue Pokemon with white on the bottom, the nose and the small fins on the side along with a small dot upon it's forehead. The large brown eyes held happiness as the dragon nuzzled against Naruto. "I c-can't move...!"

"That's a Dratini," Ash stated blandly.

"So Gible, Bagon and Dratini," Harry murmured under his breath as his eyes flickered towards the last three dragon's that stood patiently before them.

Ash frowned. "The orange one is called a Trapnich, the pre-evolution of the dragon and ground type called Flygon, but the other two I've never seen before..." He whipped out his Pokedex towards the two unknowns. Hopefully, his Pokedex would know something about these two dragons.

"_Axew, the tusk Pokemon. They use their turks to mark their territory by gashing trees. Upon breaking, the tusk will grow back quickly." _The Pokedex answered in monotone and proceeded to the next one. "_Deino, the Irate Pokemon. Unable to see, they use their teeth and tackling to familiarizing themselves with their surroundings. Cautiously approach this particular Pokemon."_

Ash mentally cheered. '_Thank you Professor Oak for upgrading the Pokedex!'_

"That's... rather depressing," Harry stated slowly feeling sympathy for the Deino. He could understand what it was like being unable to see, since without his glasses Harry was pretty much blind as a bat. "That thing is pretty useful thing to have, Ash."

The trainer grinned. "Definitely, it's saved me many a times in the past!"

"G-guys?" Naruto chocked out, struggling to free himself from Dratini's hold. "H-help?"

"Oh right, sorry about that Naruto." Ash apologized, looking at Gible. "Mind giving Naruto a hand?"

"Gib!"

The raven teen grinned. "Alright," His eyes narrowed and slashed his arm. "Use Rock Smash on Dratini...lightly," He added.

"Gib...LE!" The small dragon lunged at Dratini, his arm flashed a bright white light throwing forward, colliding straight onto the blue dragon forcing it to unwrap from Naruto's body dropping to the ground. Gible looked rather smug at his accomplishment.

Naruto groaned, slipping the ground. "T-thanks...urgh..." His sapphire eyes flickered towards Dratini, and felt his heart tightened seeing the dragon curl up in pain. Guilt began to eat away at him the longer he stared at it, slowly walking over crawling over towards it. Without saying a word, Naruto scooped up the small dragon into his arms holding it tightly. "You alright, Dratini?"

"Dra..." The dragon whined pitifully, heading falling against his chest.

"No one's going to hurt ya," The blonde soothed Dratini softly, his eyes softened feeling the head rub against his upper chest causing him to smile. "Looks like you're getting better now, aren't ya?"

The dratini let out a soft cry, contently falling asleep. "Dratini..."

"Looks like all of you are getting along quite nicely," A familiar voice boomed proudly, the shining of the light behind them blocked their vision as the figure walked down the stairs towards them and stopped. Flinging his arm to reveal a cape hovering in the air revealing the figure to be Lance, the man smiled at them radiantly. "I was wondering when you three would get here, we've been waiting a while and I see that you've chosen your dragon partners."

"More like they chose us," Harry corrected the man as Bagon nodded happily in agreement.

Naruto grinned. "Ain't that the truth!"

Unfortunately, Ash didn't seem to have the same sentiments as the other two did as he ignored the man and walked past him without sparring a glance, disappearing inside the house. A pause of uncertainty followed afterwards, together Naruto and Harry gave the man sympathetic looks as they entered the room leaving the red-haired man outside. The room that they had entered appeared to be very formal, with pillars inside holding up the house as the floor was draped with a carpet with red outlining and bright yellow centre, the far end of the room stood one of the grand elders in the middle of two dragon statues.

However, the man was not alone. Along the side lines were there instructors; Koga, Karen, Bruno and Will on one side and on the other was Delia, a space for Lance, Ryu and Hayate. They sat on their legs staring at them with blank looks.

"C'mon forward, children." The man gestured over, waiting as the three made their way to him. "I am Grand Elder Tatsuya, one of the sages that guard over this Den. As you three have accomplished what was required of you, now is the time for you to undergo the trial. Do not be afraid, they are only three questions I must ask of you."

The three swallowed in unison staring back at the man intensely.

"The first question;" Tatsuya began calmly. "What are Pokemon to you?"

Ash blinked. "That's the first question?"

"...Yes, is there a problem?" The man raised an eyebrow.

"N-No," Ash quickly answered holding his hands up into the air. "Pokemon to me are friends-"

"Family," Harry answered firmly staring coldly, holding his arms around Bagon. "They're living creatures that deserved to be cherished, loved and respected."

"What they said," Naruto nodded with a grin.

Tatsuya nodded slowly. "Second question, what is the path to victory?"

"Training!" Naruto called out thrusting his arms into the air in a punching motion. "You can't win without working for it!"

Ash snorted. "Don't forget about strategy, without a plan you're pretty screwed."

"Teamwork," Harry answered softly. "You can't do things by yourself. Victory isn't just about one person, it's about everyone working alongside each other to grasp it," The previous year had taught him that much. If it hadn't been for Hermione pushing him past his limits, he would have never survived during the tournament.

"I see..." Tatsuya murmured under his breath, stroking the long white beard that he had. "Third and final question what is the most important thing to a trainer?"

"The bonds between a trainer and their Pokemon," Ash said with a grin on his face. "That's easy!"

Harry shrugged. "I guess what Ash said?"

"Ditto," Naruto replied.

Tatsuya fell silent; the sound of breathing was the only thing that could be heard. "I have reached my judgement..." His eyes then swooped over the three of them sternly, leaking powerful killing intent was directed straight at the three of them. There was no amusement in the dark eyes, and his expression was vacant of all emotion. "However," His tone lacked the addition to the intimidation routine that he projected. "I would like to hear from the rest."

"Pass," Bruno was the first to start.

Koga didn't move. "I concur."

"I too cast my vote in their favor," Karen stated confidently, flashing a smile on her face.

Will flashed a victory sign. "Definitely!"

"Pass," Ryu remarked disinterestedly.

Hayate grunted in approval.

"Pass!" Delia cheered wearing a radiant smile on her face.

Lance's lips twitched fondly. "A pass from me."

"Very well then," Tatsuya announced loudly, clapping his hands together. "You three passed our test!"

"...So...what happens now, exactly?" Ash was the one who broke the silence, sounding confused and unsure. "I mean, shouldn't something happen?"

Before Tatsuya was able to answer, it had been Koga that interrupted. "You see Ash, this upcoming week will be the Gym Leader convention between the regions," He pressed his lips together in some annoyance. "Strangely enough, Unova was forced to pull out due to some problems, whatever they are. The Holon region and Ransei region are currently pre-occupied. And Orre is still attempting trying to get their league ready."

"What does this have to do with us?" Harry questioned suspiciously at the man. "And what about Nagato and Karin?"

Karen rubbed her temple, continuing where Koga had left off. "We think it is best that the two of you," her eyes fell upon him and Naruto. "start familiarizing yourselves with the home world and interact in an environment with your partners. As for those two, they have already received their partners yesterday."

Ash's eyebrows furrowed. "Wait why?"

"It was easier and frankly," Ryu answered dryly. "We figured it was best."

"Anyway," Lance added in, trying to get back on track to the main issue. "The Orange League has also been invited and since Ash is the Champion, he is also to attend."

Ash made a face. "I have to attend too?"

"Did you not receive an invitation?" Bruno asked in confusion, as a small squeak came from the other side and saw Delia flushed as she held out a small letter.

The woman's smiled shyly. "Oops- I forgot about it, sorry Ash."

"Its fine, mom." Ash let out a heavy sigh. "So...when is this thing?"

"Tomorrow morning," Lance answered nonchalantly watching with some sadistic satisfaction as Ash stared at him with a Deerling in the headlights expression, his body tingled at the feeling as he struggled to keep a grin from forming upon his face.

"WHAT."

* * *

Sirius was panicking, pacing back and forth in his room fretfully. His godson had received a warning letter from the Ministry of Magic and was being faced with a criminal trial of all things, that bastard Fudge was taking liberties to further discrediting his godson! His anger was not only directed towards that corrupted governmental office, but also at the self-important members of the so-called 'Order of the Phoenix' or rather, as he mentally referred them to as the Cult of Dumbledore. Each and every one of them hung on to his word, following it without question, believing that the man knew best and was the only way to get things done!

However, that wasn't the point of the matter. What did matter was that Harry had vanished soon after receiving the letters- he was doubtlessly in trouble and needed Sirius' help! Unfortunately, due to his status as a convict there was truly very little that Sirius would actually do to help him.

But that wouldn't stop him.

"When there's a will, there's a way," Sirius murmured to himself determinedly, opening up a book on his table rushing through it without hesitation. His eyes quickly skimmed over the pages, there had to be something useable in it. His finger traced upon a single spell written at the top of the section, his eyes narrowed at the description of it and smirked. "Looks simple enough to pull off," taking out his new wand that he had acquired from an ally, tapping against his chest Sirius took a deep breath. "_Adducamad Harry!" _

With that he vanished from the room leaving no trace of his presence as the book closed shut.

* * *

"I can't believe we're actually doing this," Harry stated flatly, looking none too pleased of the situation. The three found themselves standing in front of an ornate water fountain, thankfully no one had taken noticed that they had appeared out of nowhere. Bagon was still held deeply in his arms as it had refused to leave his side, was oblivious to his current displeasure. "I don't understand why we have to do this."

Ash delicately raised an eyebrow. "Hey, you're not the one that actually had to go. You two can go around the city and do what you want."

"And what?" Naruto countered, wearing a smirk on his face. "Leave you alone? Never, besides," the blonde rubbed his hands together as his smirk turned into a mischievous smile that speared towards his eyes. "Imagine all the things we can find here. Hehehehe..."

"Please don't do that. It creeps me out," The trainer informed Naruto.

The shinobi rolled his eyes sarcastically. "Oh fine, ruin my fun."

"Don't make me separate the two of you," Harry told them flatly once again, wearing a blank expression.

"Yes Dad," The two chorused in unison, grinning widely as Harry shook his head exasperated by their behaviour.

The emerald teen shook his head. "Whatever, I wonder why they just didn't bring us along with them to the convention rather than for us to find the place."

"Maybe they don't want to arouse suspicion?" Naruto offered sincerely.

"That or they're, you know, trying to teach us survival skills." Harry rebutted and shrugged, looking around the city. Many tall buildings surround them each of them going far above into the sky, reminding him of a muggle downtown. "So any idea where the hell we are?"

"Goldenrod City," Ash answered instantly, pointing at a giant flat that hanged above them. "I remember seeing that when I first came here several years ago. Which means, Whitney's gym shouldn't be too far from here," he waved his arm over and began heading north. "This way, I know where her gym is. It won't take us that long to get there!" Pikachu, nodded rapidly, sitting upon his shoulder as Ash grinned. Before leaving, he had managed to grab his partner. "Are you guys going to just stand there?"

"Are you sure you know where it is?" Naruto asked.

The trainer glared at him. "Of course I do, it hasn't been that long. Trust me I know where we're going."

"Lead the way," Harry gestured forward kindly. "You know this city better than we do Ash."

Ash grinned. "You guys won't regret it!"

Famous last words.

Several hours were spent going from one place and back to the exact same spot again, winding up in one giant circle. Regardless of the reassurance of Ash, no progress seemed to be made at getting to Whitney's gym, whoever that person was. Thus, it stood to reason to ask directions from one of the city's citizens. Unfortunately, the people that they had run into were mostly tourists that were on vacation and did not know the layout of the city leaving the three to navigate to the desired destination. A feat that was proving to be easier said than done, everything seemed to look alike in some shape and form. It was quite discouraging.

Still it amazed the two foreigners of how big and spacious the city appeared to be, Konoha was a very large village in it's own right but, it didn't compare to the feel of Goldenrod City. The technological advancement and skyscrapers played a major role since Naruto had never seen one before; in fact it took the blonde's entire will power not to go bouncing all over the place in excitement. Harry was the opposite, while he was overall impressed by the surroundings the majority of his attention was drawn towards the people, and the Pokemon that they had with them. It seem to different from people walking their dogs, or student carrying their pets around in their bags, but that wasn't what he was focusing on, instead Harry was looking at the Pokemon.

He always viewed himself more as an animal person rather than a people person. The idea of social events and hanging around a large group of people made him feel uncomfortable, being around Naruto and Ash and the others was an entirely different story as they were family. Not complete and total strangers. Unfortunately, after the events that had transpired the previous year his aversion of gatherings seemed to have increase by ten-fold.

Which it explained the reason why his eyes were flickering around at the various Pokemon that they were coming across. He was currently and mentally bracing himself for the Convention that the three of them were being forced to attend. Much to his ire.

Maybe if his luck held out, He'd find some way to ditch. And fast.

"Just a bit more!" Ash's voice ranked him out of his thoughts; the sheepish grin on the other boy did nothing to reassure Harry and Naruto. It was clearly obvious that their cousin absolutely had no idea where they were going, and where only leading them in circles.

Typic-

The trainer nearly fell backwards, landing straight into Naruto's and Harry's arms, catching him before meeting with concrete. The dark haired boy rubbed the feeling of pain away, squinting his eyes and found himself staring into a rather familiar figure as suddenly all pain was forgotten and grinned, pulling himself out of their reach. "Morty!" The blonde hair was a complete and utter give away, as was the band that was wrapped around the man's forehead.

"It's good to see that you remember me, Ash." The Ghost gym leader of Ecruteak stated with a faint smile on his face. "What are you doing in Goldenrod, I thought you'd be heading to another region by now?"

Ash continued to grin. "I'm actually here as the Orange League representative for the Gym Leader convention."

"Oh, so you're the Champion of the Orange Crew?" The man sounded surprised, his smile turned wistful. "I think I'm beginning to understand now. You got lost trying to get to Whitney's gym, didn't you?" At the blush, the man chuckled. "I'm heading there right now. There isn't much time; I'll take you there since we're heading to the same place." His eyes prying over his shoulder, noticing the other two, he waved politely. "Who are your friends, Ash?"

"They're my cousins," He corrected the leader politely. "This is Harry and Naruto, guys this is Morty. He's the gym leader of Ercuteak City, from the next town over. I battled against him when I was journeying through Johto several years ago."

"It's nice to meet you, Morty," Harry bowed his head towards the blonde man.

Naruto grinned. "Yo!"

"It's a pleasure to meet the both of you. Now then, I suggest we hurry up none of us want to be late." The blonde stated, gesturing forward the faint smile still present. "I'd rather not let Whitney tease me about my tardiness." The man winced, and his smile became lopsided. "She's a good girl, really but she tends to..."

"Take things too far?" Ash offered.

Naruto continued. "Exaggerate?"

"Go on a tangent?"

"All of the above, really." Morty answered burying half of his face into his palm, letting out an insufferable sigh. "Whitney's gym is this way," He began to lead the three towards the gym rushing towards the direction in a hurry, and eventually they arrived at the rather oval looking building coated in white, pink and blue design.

It looked just like how Ash had reminded it all those years ago. A giant banner was stretched across the top of the door, purely dark orange with bright yellow words that had "GYM LEADER CONVENTION!" Going across from left to right; many people seemed to swarm around the doors. Many of them girls, whom began wooing over Morty's good looks as the three managed to get a few "Ohhh whose the cutie with glasses?" "The one with the whiskers is hot!" and lastly, "The guy with Pikachu looks dreamy!" needlessly to say, they were rather embarrassed by the comments directed towards them. It was strange getting such compliments, especially from total strangers.

Harry was somewhat use to the stares and words. Just not being voiced so loudly and freely, it freaked him out a bit. The most he had ever received had been mere whispered and incoherent sentences that managed to reach his ear. Ash, somewhat knew what was like, during his travels through the Battle Frontier and whenever he had entered a League, but he still reacted the same way that the other raven haired boy had. Naruto, on the other hand, had never experienced such things and found himself grinning like a fool all the way inside.

The entire gym had been filled with tons of people, very few of them were familiar through the eyes of Naruto and Harry while to Ash they were old faces he hadn't seen in years; the life of a Pokemon trainer required him to keep moving to region to region.

"Each section of gym leaders has their own, section, for a lack of a better term. As you can see the Kanto Gym leaders are over there," Morty began pointing towards where Blaine, was sitting draped in a red dress shirt underneath a white vest companied by white pants, and a hat that had a red strip around it still holding a cane with a pair of shades. "In between the Kanto and Johto sections is the Orange League section. You can see Luana and Clair over there sitting in their chairs."

However, that didn't seem to be what Ash was focusing on. His eyes were glued towards the Kanto table, swallowing thickly his stare never wearing nor leaving.

'_Misty..._'

She would be here. That much Ash was certain of, normally he would be ecstatic to see his old time friend again unfortunately, now was not such a good time and as much as he regretted there was no way Ash could let Misty get involved what he was in. Swallowing once more, he tore his gaze away from the table and stared firmly into Morty's eyes.

"Do you mind showing us around a bit?"

Morty blinked rather perplexed by the request, but nevertheless smiled at the younger boy. "Sure Ash. There isn't much to see though."

"That's fine with me," The boy dismissed with easy.

The leader didn't bother commenting, and nodded. "If... that's what you want Ash. Do you two want to come along?"

"Are we even allowed wandering around, we're not gym leaders. Just Ash's cousins, so isn't us being a bad thing?" Harry asked suspiciously at the older male, pressing his lips together as he looked around the gym room watching as many of the people were mixing and mingling among themselves; a stab of guilt cut through him. He couldn't help feel that they were intruding on some level. "We really shouldn't be here." Wow. That sound strange especially coming from him, especially everything he had been through and had done over the years, still... it didn't feel right.

It appeared that the heavens had other thoughts as the weight of his body shifted. Turning upwards, Harry and Naruto stared up at Bruno, whom was smiling at them. "Ah," The burly man stated. "I was wondering when you'd three would be here. I'm glad to see that you made it here on time, oh..." His attention drifted towards the fourth member. "Hello there Morty, been keeping well I see!"

"Umm... I guess you could say that, Bruno." Morty responded somewhat bewildered.

"I hope my three apprentices haven't been giving too much trouble, have they? Naruto can be quite a handful," The dark haired man levelled the blonde a mischievous look watching in bemusement as Naruto glared at him mockingly.

The leader shook his head, stunned by the revelation. "No, they haven't."

"Glad to hear that," Bruno nodded happy with the reply and clapped his hands together before rubbing them. "Now, there's someone I want the three-...where's Harry?"

The other three instantly began looking around trying to locate the raven haired boy, only to discover him missing. "Looks like he ran off somewhere," Ash commented. '_Lucky_.' It wasn't that he disliked Bruno, in fact he like the man a lot and considered him practically family. However, there was only so much time a person could spend with the martial artist before their patience with him thinned, not because he was uninteresting or unfriendly but... his manners left to be desired. Ash remembered his first encounter with the man and how he made Brock and himself do all of his chores, because Bruno was utterly lazy and didn't want to do it himself! An awesome fighter the man was, but a good host he was not.

"He's here somewhere," Morty quickly came to Ash's rescue. "Sorry, but I promised Ash I'd show him around a bit. So if you'll excuse us," bowing his head at the man he quickly directed Ash to the opposite side of the room leaving Naruto by himself.

Bruno let out a powerful and cheerful bellow. "Alright have you two. Since you're still here Naruto, how about I introduce you to the person I was talking about. I'm very certain that the both of you will become very good friends!"

"Joy," Naruto mumbled under his breath as the man leaded him straight into the crowd, following silently. His hands were deep into his pockets his eyes focused onto the ground, refusing to look up as the man promptly stopped and moved to the side.

"Hey dude," A rambunctious and friendly voice spoke up, his sapphire eyes glancing up to see a rather well built man with spiky blue hair wearing an completely orange shirt with white collar around his neck and arms, underneath seemed to be a black clothing of sorts that Naruto was unable to recognized. The guy continued to grin rather cheerfully. "What's up? I heard that you're a fellow student of Master Bruno."

Naruto blinked. "Huh...yeah, I guess. Name's Uzumaki Naruto, and by the way nice orange shirt!"

"Thanks' dude!" The blue haired man commented. "I'm Brawly," he held out his hand as Naruto stared at for a few moments causing the taller male to grin. "You shake it, like this." He grabbed the blonde's hand and placed it into his own, before shaking it. "See?"

"Oh!" Naruto remarked, his grin stretched from ear to ear.

"By the way, nice orange!"

This was going to be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

* * *

Harry quickly immersed into the shadows of the crowds, almost disappearing from sight. It had been something that he managed to learn during his younger years growing up with the Dursleys, no one ever noticed whenever he ran off somewhere, and when he was actually there to begin with usually assuming that he was present. At Hogwarts, the technique had been perfected, allowing himself to slip away and head to the one spot where he was able to get some room to think away from the masses along with his friends.

And now he was using it to hide from Bruno and the others. He loved his cousins unconditionally however, Harry would rather hide at the back corners of the room where no one would be able see him. Nothing against any of Ash's friends; it was just how he was.

At the far back of the room he was able to see a bar like structure that almost seemed hidden from everyone else deciding to take his chances he made his way over towards it. The farther back from the crowds, the better in his opinion, Harry was trying to be a bit more sociable but, the fact of the matter remained he wasn't supposed to be in the building and neither was Naruto. At least from his perspective. They were Ash's quests and it didn't seem to be other guests that other gym leaders had brought, so as long as he stayed out of sight there was no way for Ash to get into any trouble. His looked backwards seeing the flash of the other boy's red hat briefly before vanishing behind the streams of the people; at least Morty was with him.

Harry arrived to the dark corner, placing himself within the curtains of darkness far from view. He released Bagon from his pokeball, and the dragon immediately jumped into his arms and began to rub his head against Harry's chest. Quiet and nice, something he personally enjoyed as his body seemed to slump into a relaxing state. His emerald eyes pierced through the darkness and snorted a small smile turning his body inside the darkness.

"Looks like I'm not the only one that hates these things," A calm and mature male voice spoke up in a cool murmur. Near him sat a man with radiant blonde hair and sapphire eyes that pierced him with curiously and bemusement. Harry was able to make out the tiniest smile on the man's face, and noted that his body was wrapped around a blue jacket with yellow orbs running down his arms along with a black shirt that was pressed up against the man's body tightly and leather pants.

Harry flushed fighting off a sheepish grin. "Sorry, I didn't realize that there was someone beside myself here."

"No. It's fine," The blonde dismissed with ease, his eyes never wavered. "I can tell that you're not a Gym leader, or a champion for that matter. Who are you?"

"Harry. Harry Potter, I'm actually Ash Ketchum's cousin," Harry answered without hesitation. "He's the Orange league Champion, we were invited alongside him; by 'we' I also mean our other cousin Naruto that's somewhere around here-is there something wrong?" The man's facial expression was filled with shock and surprise.

"Ash is a Champion? Didn't know that, and of the Orange League." The blonde mused wistfully; his smile broke out a bit. "I knew there was something about that kid."

Harry blinked, carefully adjusting his hold on Bagon carefully as the small dragon continued to sleep soundlessly against his chest. "You know my cousin then?" He was rather curious as Ash had never really spoken much about his life before meeting them.

"He helped saved my tower from a bunch of crooks and later battled me for the Beacon Badge," The blonde answered with a small smile on his face, his eyes glistened with nostalgia.

"I see," The wizard responded unable to think of anything else to say. "I'm glad to hear that Ash made such a big impression on you."

The blonde nodded slightly. "You could say that. Kid's going to go places, let me tell ya."

"Ash is definitely something," Harry agreed with the man, with a small nod as he tilted his head and frowned thinly at the blonde."Ummm...?"

The man blinked owlishly. "What?"

"I never caught your name," Harry responded. "I don't want to keep calling you, you or guy."

"True. My name is Volkner," the blonde answered with a faint smile on his face, his electric sapphire eyes softened slightly. "I guess you're not from around here, are you?"

"You could say that," Harry rebutted not unkindly.

Volkner's eyebrows furrowed, his eyes glinted with interest. "Not going to give me a straight answer?" The man seemed amused by the prospect. "That makes things more fun."

Harry was a bit taken aback by the comment. "Trying to figure out where I'm from is fun?"

"What can I say?" The blonde began, leaning back against his chair, staring at him intently. "I like a good challenge."

"Is that so?" Harry remarked with a chuckle. "You're a rather interesting man, Volkner."

The blonde snorted. "I'm not that old. I'm nineteen."

"S_uuu_re you are," Harry teased with a grin on his face.

"You shouldn't make fun, you can't be much younger than I am." Volkner stated calmly, cocking an eyebrow up at the other male.

"Not by much," Harry answered truthfully. "I'm younger by a few years."

"Years?" Volkner questioned surprised, eyes blinking rapidly. "You don't look that young. At least a year, but not that much," his eyes ran over the younger boy subtly getting a full glimpse of him as his lips relaxed into a comfortably and shook his head rolling his eyes in unison at his statement. "So you're from Pallet Town then?"

"You could say that," Harry responded offhandedly, not entirely telling the truth but not lying at the same time. "What about you Volkner?"

The blonde man smiled, his eyes glazing over. "I came from Sunyshore City, my hometown. There's no better place to live in my biased opinion, it's where the sun always shines brightly." His eyes shined brightly within the darkness as he continued. "There's also a beautiful ocean right next to the town, making it an excellent spot for vacations."

"It sounds like a nice place," Harry stated, sincerely.

"It is," Volkner agreed, and folded his arm against his chest as his eyes flickered towards the sleeping dragon. "Looks like the little guy's tuckered out."

Harry blushed, smiling slightly once again re-adjusting the position of Bagon. "Yeah, it's been a long day for him." The poor guy had been hyper since they had met, eventually the wasted energy had caught up with him and was now drowning into sleep. He thought about putting him back in a Pokeball, but had ultimately decided it against it mainly because his partner looked so comfortable laying his arms that Harry didn't wish to disturb Bagon's slumber.

"I can tell," Volkner said, leaning over as his eyes twinkled with amusement watching as a snort escaped the small dragon's lips causing him to chuckle gently. "Cute," he switched his seat and moved over towards Harry a bit closer. "So, have you ever been to Goldenrod before?"

Harry shook his head. "No, this is my first time. It's certainly a lively place and big too."

"Goldenrod is Johto's largest city. Each region at least has one city that is the 'capital'," Volkner began informatively. "For Sinnoh, the region I come from, ours would be Veilstone. It's also the home to Maylene, she's another gym leader from my region, over there." He nodded towards the girl with pink hair wearing a dark blue tank top and white sweatpants. "Have you ever been to Sinnoh?"

"Afraid not," Harry answered honestly, raising an eyebrow at the blonde. "Not really good at conversations are you?"

Volkner sighed lowly "Unfortunately. I'm not a...sociable person."

"Don't worry," Harry began understanding the other male's plight. "I'm not either."

"That's...good, really good. I guess," the blonde murmured quietly, looking rather relieved. His shoulders slumped casually and his eyes took a full gaze of the room, and pressed his lips together in a tight frown. "I still can't believe Flint managed to drag me here."

Harry's brows furrowed. "Flint? Is a friend of yours?"

"The guy with the afro," Volkner answered gestured towards the red head wearing the bright yellow shirt with a black chocker around his neck, two bright red suspenders flagging at his sides with huge baggy pants as he was chatting rather happily with girl with bright long red hair, whom looked rather excited and cheerful at the same time. "He's my best friend...despite all the crazy shit he manages to pull me into," He gave his head a shake and smiled ruefully. "He's an idiot through and through."

"Sounds like the two of you are close," Harry commented.

Volkner nodded slowly. "He's practically my brother in all but blood. I just wish he'd give me some space."

"You don't sound as if you mind it," Harry countered not unkindly.

"Depends on what he's up to, I guess." Volkner answered with a small laugh, as his eyes went wide seeing letting out a heavy and irritated groan. "Great," His teeth gritted together in a look of dread passing over his face. "Damn it."

Harry's eyes went over and saw the familiar red bouncing towards over to them. "Want to leave?"

"Is that okay?" Volkner asked, a frown present on his lips looking rather uncomfortable.

"I'm not a fan of crowds either, remember?" Harry teased the blonde. "I'm sure Ash and Naruto can find me later."

The blonde stared at him for several moments intensely his sapphire eyes jolted electrically, nodding with his faint smile. "Alright, let's go."

* * *

Chapter 4-end.

Sorry for the long wait I hope that it was worth it though! Thanks to everyone who reviewed and my awesome beta Alec McDowell for doing a splendid job as always!

The next chapter WILL be revealing the harems so please look forward to it!

Remember to leave a review; what did you like, what could be done better, what didn't you like and where do you think the plot is going? I want to hear all of your thoughts!


	5. Overwhelming confrontations

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, Pokemon, Naruto or any other series that appear in this fanfic. They all belong to their respected owner so please support the official releases.

Warnings: Slash!Harems, character death, NO BASHING, violence, swearing, AU, multicrossover

Chapter Four: Overwhelming Confrontations

"-And this is where the battles are going to be held for the conference."

Ash openly gapped at the giant stadium that Morty had taken him as the conference back at Whitney's gym had continued on without much of a hitch with their disappearance, the ghost leader had been kind enough to have figured out that he getting away from the building was on the top of his list-whether the blond figured out the reason as to why; Ash didn't quite know and frankly preferred not to dwell upon that matter. He had other matters on his mind anyway.

"They went out of their way just to build a battle field for the conference? That seems a bit extreme," Ash commented with a frown glancing up at the other. Inwardly, he was unable to deny the great care that had been placed into the structuring of the stadium. Whomever designed the place definitely had a well thought out idea. It almost reminded Ash of the Kanto Stadium back when he had been competing in the Indigo league, everything seemed rather polished and cleaned to the point where it was glistening underneath the rays of the lighting, everything looked rather bright as well. Then again, it wasn't that much of a surprise as it was a new.

Morty chuckled at the expression clapping a hand upon the younger's shoulder. "It does seem that doesn't it? It's somewhat like a normal league, except we're trying to promote region unity."

Among several other reasons that went beyond that not that Ash needed to personally know that. Promoting unity was one of the main reasons for it, the tournament was also used to judge and measure the difference in strength between them as well. They also used it in order to coerce foreign trainers into travelling to other regions while gaining a good amount of tourism in the process really it was a win-win for all regions in the grand scheme of things.

"Oh."

What else could Ash say to that? Not really much, briefly wondering if he'd be competing in this little tournament that was going to occur in which case he might have to contact Oak in order to get his team together. His strongest.

"Are you participating?" Ash asked abruptly.

Morty stroked his chin musing gently almost mockingly as the ghost trainer smirked towards his direction. "Oh I definitely am. After all, I can't afford to let Fantina to have all the fun now can I?"

"Hmmm true," Ash remarked nonchalantly, his thoughts firmly debating on whether to enter himself or not. He sincerely doubted that there'd be away for him to weasel out of it anyway, duties or not. Worse case scenario he'd use a shadow clone to take his place. Thanks to Naruto's both Harry and himself managed to get the technique down but wasn't able to create as many clones as his blonde cousin due to him having a large chakra reserve compared to himself, either way he was grateful that shinobi taught and helped perfect it.

"Don't worry I'll make sure to give you a good show," The blond leader gave Ash a playful wink, chuckling very gently and continued to direct the young trainer down towards the corridors to check out the rest of the perimeter.

The teen cocked an eyebrow, smirking slyly. "Is that so? I don't doubt that you've managed to grow stronger, Morty." He informed the leader sincerely. "Then again so have I."

"I know. I make sure to watch your tournaments," The ghost leader stated fondly allowing a faint smile to appear, finger tangling with the long scarf that was wrapped around his neck. His eyes danced with the tiniest bit of mirth and fondness. "You've came a long way since the last time I saw you, Ash. I hope that you and I will be able to battle once everything gets under way."

His eyes blinked rapidly at the statement leaving him rather bewildered. It took awhile for the information to sink into his brain finding himself at a loss of how to respond, rather shocked that Morty of all people would tune in to watch his battles.

It was...nice. Never once did would Ash ever suspect something like that. Coming to the convention was proving to be rather enlightening.

(R O U)

"Where in the ruddy hell am I?" Sirius growled looking around at the strange place that he had found himself standing outside a rather large building-a muggle building from the looks of it, which made some sense to him as his godson was muggle raised. As far as his memory went this wasn't anywhere near Surrey nor England for that matter, in fact if a guess had to be made he'd have to say that this place was in an entirely different country! _'But why would Harry be in a different country?' _

However, the longer Sirius had thought about it the more sense it made. Frankly, getting out of England and taking Harry with him had been the very first thing to cross his mind upon capturing Pettigrew once the rat had been handed over to the ministry with his innocence declared. There was no way in hell he would continue to allow his godson to remain in such a prejudice world, especially with men such as Fudge and Dumbledore running the show from behind the scenes-regardless of how smart and intelligent the Headmaster was; that didn't mean that Sirius trusted him completely. No. The old man had been getting far too comfortable gaining power as he sat back in his big chair watching the rest of magical Britain practically bow towards him, unquestioning the events that unfolded and the many laws that he broke in the name of the so-called 'greater good'.

It made him want to vomit.

Everyone followed the man's lead as if he was the next incarnation of Merlin, bowing to his every whim and desire like blind sheep. Sirius had suspected for some time that Dumbledore knew far more than what he was letting on, but was unable to prove it without help which he had deliberately went to Remus, which had been a horrible idea in it's self. His old friend was far too deep into Dumbledore's pockets that he had become a firm Dumbledorian refusing to see the worst in the man, chiding him for believing anything differently about the headmaster.

Upon that very moment was when Sirius had realized that he alone stood against Dumbledore. He didn't care what happened to himself as long as Harry was safe from harm and out of the old goat's grasp! Now if only he could locate his godson and warn him...

"Oof!"

He collided with someone and fell straight onto his ass. "Ow!" Sirius hissed glaring at the cement angrily. "Sorry about that mate-" His voice trailled off upon seeing a hand held out in front him, glancing up to see the warm smile coming from the other, whom turned out to be another man. "Err...thanks..." Taking the hand as the other pulled him back straight onto his feet. The man's grip had been strong-stronger than any other male that he had come across in his life anyway.

"It's fine. It was my fault I hadn't been looking where I was going anyway, I apologize." The man stated flushing rather embarrassed; the smile remained taking on a sheepish edge and used his free hand to rub the back of his head.

Sirius shook his head stubbornly. "Nah mate, I hadn't been looking where I was going either. So it's both of our faults." An idea suddenly popped into his head. "Sorry about this, but have you seen a young kid with unruly black hair, glasses and emerald green eyes?"

Mentioning the eyes was a dead give away to Harry. The eyes were one of the very first things that people noticed about him, minus that dreaded scar of his.

The other male stared at him for several moments blinking rapidly at his question, falling into a stance appearing to be thinking it over. "Now that you mention I did see Ash, he's friend of my kids, bringing two boys along with him. One of them is exactly how you described, is he your son?" The other inquired curiously staring at him curiously.

"He's my godson," Sirius corrected instantly nodded feverously. "Do you know where he is?"

"I did see him leaving with Volkner not too long ago actually," Came the answer that Sirius had been hoping for before it was quickly dashed. "Unfortunately, I hadn't see where exactly they headed off to. Sorry."

"Damn it," The dark haired man cursed slamming a fist into his free hand.

"But, I'm sure that we can find them. It wouldn't be too difficult especially since Volkner is involved," The man reassured him with an bemused chuckle. "As long as we work together and keep our eyes peeled I'm sure we'll find them."

Sirius stared at him. "You'd...help me? Why?" Not that it was unwelcomed. Merely he was surprised by the act of kindness unused to such things since his escape from Azkaban prison back in the day people would be lining up to help Sirius out. That was then and Sirius no longer had that youthful, handsome appearance having most of his good looks taken from him over the years of imprisonment. Not to mention that damage that had been on his psyche which was an entirely different story all together, not that it mattered as Molly constantly used it as an excuse to badmouth him in front of everyone. In all honesty, he did not care much for the woman tolerating her presence at best due to Ron being Harry's best friend.

Though after that little stunt of his during the previous year Sirius wondered just how much longer that would last.

"Do you need a reason to help someone?" The man countered gently, folding arms straight against his chest. "Besides, you seem like a good guy so I don't see the harm in helping you out. And I know what's like trying to look for your kid when they run off."

The wizard swallowed slowly. "I...thank you."

"You don't need to thank me," The other male said, giving him a short nod. "By the way, it helped if I knew your name."

"Oh!" Sirius flushed finding himself grinning widely and held out his hand towards him. "Name's Sirius Black, a pleasure."

"The pleasure's all mine. And my name is Norman."

(ROU)

"You seriously painted all of the statues back home? Damn! I wish I could have been there to see it!" Brawly laughed loudly grinning widely at the younger boy, his back pressed against the chair while laughing. His arms were wrapped around his body. His body shook violently with how much he was laughing before regaining control of himself, whipping the tears from his eyes. "Aw man, what else did you do?"

The blonde grinned widely rubbing his hands together. "There was that one time back when I was at the Academy when I snuck into the teacher's longue and put itching powder all over their furniture and causing an entire week off!"

To say that Naruto was enjoying himself would be a complete understatement. Not only had he managed to befriend someone that shared his opinion on orange but, also saw the awesomeness of his pranking expertise! It was almost like a match made in heaven as far as he was concerned, finally being able to share the stories of all the things he did back at the academy was something that Naruto had secretly yearned to do. He hadn't told Ash nor Harry, whom neither saw a great deal about pranks from what had been gathered, which Naruto decided not to pester them about it having a rough idea that it had something to do with their pasts.

He understood the secrecy. And, Naruto was patient enough just like they were patient with them in return. All of them had something to hide from the other, not because they wanted to, but rather they were afraid of each other's reaction.

Except Nagato. The older male seemed to be the one of the few that didn't seem to hide anything from the group, mostly. Naruto hadn't been able to decide whether the Akatsuki member was to be trusted just yet keeping a firm eye on the redhead, regardless of how the elders of the clan seemed to treat Nagato with respect and trust he still found himself unable to. With good reason, after the attempt on Gaara's life, there was no way in hell he was going to let his guard down easily.

Karin on the other hand was someone that he bonded with quickly. She was around the same age as the rest of them thus becoming a part of their small group of three, she did keep her distance from them at a time focusing on her training. She did spend a large part of her time within her room Naruto simply wrote it off as a girl thing not questioning it. He was however, rather worried about her as she had become somewhat distance over the past while nearly withdrawing within to herself, barely speaking to anyone outside of training and meals. The others had noticed it as well, but kept quiet about it. There was nothing they could do until she came to them.

Naruto hoped at least.

"I never did anything like that back when I was younger," The blunette commented the cheerful smile remained on his face, the vibrating energy rolled off of him. "I mostly kept to my training-not just Pokemon, but physical training. I studied under Bruno back when I was about twelve or so, I've been into martial arts ever since."

Now that was something that Naruto could get into. "Do you spar often?"

"Every single day!" Brawly announced cheerfully flexing his muscles. A sly smile found it's way onto his face, his eyes narrowed into slits challenging the smaller boy. "Want to find out just how strong I am, Naruto? I ain't a pushover that's for sure," his eyes flashed an unreadable gleam.

"Good. Because that just makes things boring," The blonde retorted smirking at the gym leader.

Brawly pushed forward onto the table staring at him intently. "You know Naruto, I like ya!" His grin grew wider. "How about we go and take this straight to the beach? That's my territory, that is if you're not scared."

"I never run away from a spar," Naruto shot back good-naturedly, his arms folded towards the back of his head removing himself from the seat. "I'm definitely going to take you down!"

"I'm going to make you eat those words, little dude!"

"I'd like to see you try old man!"

The echoes of cheerful laughter followed after the two as they descended towards the beach. Not noticing the sharp gusts of wind that emerged upon their disappearance, creating cracks within the hard concrete ground.

(ROU)

Harry breathed in holding out his arms slightly allowing the sea-like wind to press up against his skin. There was nothing better than feeling cool air in his opinion, having spent most of his time in the sky at Hogwarts Harry had developed an appreciation for it eventually coming to love the air against his skin and body. Today was the first time that Harry had ever experienced this type of wind, the tingling feel of the sea once again appeared within his nostrils but, was promptly ignored and continue to bask into pleasure sensation that overcame him. For once it was nice to just sit back and enjoy the scenary rather than worry about the next attack.

"Is this your first time to a beach?" The bemused tone came from his companion, Volkner leaned against the wall holding Bagon. The faint smile on his face made him realized that the blonde was observing him rather closely yet reframed from commenting too often, if he had to guess the leader was enjoying himself by merely watching.

An eyebrow was raised half-turned towards the other male indulging him with a smile of his own. "You could say that I guess, I don't travel that much outside of my home with the exceptional trip to my school. Being able to be in another town is a bit of a treat," He added truthfully. Even back with the Dursleys they had never once taken him anywhere outside of Surrey if they could help it preferring to leave him with either Miss Figgs or a friend. "My school doesn't go trips either."

Volkner pushed himself off the walk calmly walked towards him. "Is that so?"

"We have a small town near the school, but that's about it." Harry shrugged his shoulders dismissing the issues entirely.

"I see. Maybe you can visit Sunyshore, it has one of the best beaches in all of Sinnoh region...and I'll take you to it." The leader stated nonchalantly, his lips twitched rather fondly at the declaration. His electric blue eyes gleamed with pride at the mention of his home.

That had been a bit of surprise. He hadn't been expecting this type of offer before a smile came, and nodded at him. "Thanks, when I do I'll make sure to take you up on that offer."

"Good. I'm glad." Volkner replied, eyes softening as his hands dug straight into his pants. With any warning whatsoever the blonde promptly planted himself straight onto the sand staring up at him with an unreadable look. "What?"

Harry blinked slowly. "N-no nothing! Just taken by surprise is all!"

"...Why's that?"

"...Nevermind," Joining the blonde onto the sand staring at him as they remained silent. What would they talk about? While his knowledge of the world was basic at best, the less people that knew about that the better off he'd be. "So how long have you been a gym leader?"

Volkner raised an eyebrow, smirking wryly at him. "Nearly four years. I was employed by the Sinnoh Pokemon Association back when I was sixteen, apparently I was a 'genius' of sorts from their eyes. I never really thought that, I worked my ass off to get from where I was to where I am now. Am I smart? I'd like to think so. A genius? No. Sorry, you're better off asking someone else." A snort escaped his lips falling back onto the sand staring up at the sky. "I digress I love Sunyshore and I love my gym." He sighed. "Yet...I feel like I'm missing something."

Harry's brows furrowed. "Missing? Like what?"

"...Something important," Volkner murmured softly. "...I just wish I knew what."

Harry found himself rather sheepish unable to gather his voice together staring deeply into the sapphire pool of the other male. Suddenly, his arm reached out placing themselves right on top of Volkner's gripping in a very reassuring manner as his mouth opened.

"Whatever it is you're missing, you'll find it one day Volkner. I'm sure of it." Giving the other male a very gentle smile and directed an encouraging nod.

The blonde didn't respond immediately bewildered by his words and remained silent for quite a few moments. Slowly, the expression on his face had changed and his shoulder slumped into a relaxation position before sending a side-smirk towards him. "You know what? Your right," Volkner stated nodding firmly. "I will find it."A determined flare flashed through his eyes, returning the nod. "I just have to go out there and find it!"

The genuine resolve from that man made Harry chuckle preparing to comment as a small, but loud enough cry to warrant both of their attention caused both of them to snap their head towards the source of the sound. Down below was a small, blue penguin looking up at them with large beady eyes before flinging it's self straight into Harry's chest, snuggling up against him, which caught the young wizard by surprise. It hadn't taken him long, gently began to hold the smaller creature holding him close to his chest giving the blue bird a soft smile.

Volkner's head peered over his shoulder, chuckling. "It seems that the little guy likes you."

"I think that's a bit of an understatement, Volkner." Harry said not unkindly sending him a small smile, returning his attention back to the small Pokemon in his arms. "Do you know what it's called? I don't have a Pokdex to check it."

"It's called Piplup, a water type Pokemon and native of the Sinnoh region. I'm rather surprised to see one out here all the way in Johto," Volkner answered pressing his lips together, eyes flickered from the penguin and back towards Harry. "Either it's a wild type or was released by a trainer."

The wizard didn't comment keeping his concentration on Piplup. "In that case I guess we should take it to a Pokemon Centre then?" Inwardly he was cheering himself for remembering what the place was called as Ash had practically drilled it into his head, keeping up this facade was difficult as it was. Forcing himself back onto his feet his eyes went straight to Bagon, who had been playing around on the sand until he had seen his trainer stand him and made his way over towards Harry.

"That would be a good idea," Volkner agreed, a flash of approval had appeared in his eyes before vanishing just as quickly as it had appeared. A rather happy smile appeared on his face. "C'mon I'll take you to the Centre."

Harry was confused as he followed after the blonde. Why was Volkner so happy? Had he said something that made him that way? The thoughts were pushed to the side as the two made their way to the centre with Bagon tagging behind them.

(ROU)

"I take it you've never been to the Goldenrod before?" Norman concluded, struggling to keep a smile off his face watching amused at the behaviour Sirius was showing him. The longer haired man was acting like an overprotective father, desperately wanting to find his child and a lost Pokemon. It was rather cute in all seriousness. "It's a big city, Sirius. So we'll have to take our time looking for them, the two of us just need to be patient."

Sirius threw him an exasperated stare. "No. I haven't... and I know that, I'm worried about him. I can't help it!" _'I nearly lost him not once, but twice due to my own stupidity. I won't let that happen again!'_Harry is and would always be his top priority, damn the consequences. He just wanted his godson to be safe and out of harm's way! Was that simply too much to ask?

"I know." Norman's eyes were soft filled with understanding as he gripped his shoulders reassuringly. "When my daughter went off on her own when she was younger, I panicked. I had no idea where she was and began to look all over the place just to find her. Nearly drove me to an early grave," Shaking his head at the memory. It hadn't been pleasant back then but, looking back now it was rather funny. "I found her. She had gone into town trying to shop for a present for her brother, without telling us. It took us awhile to find her, but the main was that we found her."

"As much of a lovely story that was Norman, that doesn't really help us find Harry." Sirius stated struggling not to snap as the male had been polite and kind enough to help him. The array of emotion within him was going absolutely bonkers, feeling his magic jolting within him. His fingers twitched irritably.

Norman's lips twitched. "I was rather hoping that it could calm you to be honest."

"Oh..."

"I can see that it didn't work." Norman continued with a sad smile, eyes flashing empathically at the man. "I guess I'll have to try harder now won't I?" A smirk appeared on his face. Determined. Yes, that's what it was for. He knew that success would bear fruit.

Sirius cocked an eyebrow. "Is that a challenge or a statement?"

"Both if you'd like." Norman countered, the smirk remained.

A strange tingle ran through his body nearly taking Sirius by surprise staring at the other man. This...this was something new. Something different from before yet he was unable to describe what that feeling was merely catching Sirius by surprise and furthering enticing him along. When was the last time he had felt something like this anyway? He couldn't remember. It felt like forever. While he hadn't yet commented on man his eyes stared deeply into the orbs of black reflecting back, suddenly his throat had gone dry. Unable to speak for several moments forcing Sirius to swallow audibly.

How was one supposed to react to this?

But Sirius, being whom he was, refused to simply remained stunned. A smirk slide on his face slouching his body lazily. "In that case I'll take that challenge up," He remarked with a short nod. "Unless you think you can't handle me."

"I think I can handle you. Easily," The other man responded quickly with a low yet confident chuckle.

Sirius raised an eyebrow. He definitely liked this man. "I'll take your word for it. Of course, I'm sure that the actions will show if you truly are capable."

"In that case prepare to be disappointed," Norman said cheerfully with a peace sign.

The wizard rolled his eyes with a snort, the ends of his mouth twitched giving Norman one of his rare genuine smiles that were usually reserved for Harry. And now barely, for Remus. His eyes darkened momentarily at the thought of his old friend before vanishing as quickly as it had appeared now was not the time to dwell on such thoughts. Finding his gaze being torn from the man and focused on the city around him gaining a large glimpse of it again only this time around Sirius was beginning to feel the pressure of the largeness that came from being inside, it was almost suffocating. Not in a bad way, merely astonished. He had been so wrapped up in finding Harry, Sirius had forgotten to keep calm and be level-headed.

Realization hit him with full force. It was this time of recklessness that had nearly caused him to lose Harry in the first place! The mantra of insults from the months he had spent in Grimmauld place had returned causing him to turn red with anger before managing to calm himself down. Once Harry was found Sirius vowed to work on his reckless nature, though sincerely doubting anything would come from it. He was protective of his godson, and it wasn't like that he could just turn it off. That wasn't how things worked.

Then again compared to Molly, Sirius at least tried to be understanding and made attempts to communicate with Harry rather than force him to do things he didn't want to. He knew that there were things in life in which his charge would have to choice on his own accord.

Unfortunately, it seems that no one agreed with that.

Sirius was unaware of what stance Ron and Hermione were on as they faced their fair share of problems with the Order members and Molly, but that didn't mean he necessarily trusted them entirely either. The two were rather blind as the rest of the members believing in Dumbledore's words as if they were the gospel! As far as Sirius was concerned their loyalties in regards to his godson were now in question until further information could be gathered on them. Nevertheless, he had a feeling that Harry was already not thrilled with his so-called friends either. In fact Sirius would even go far as to say that the friendship between the three was shattered if not almost broken.

It was almost like the fall of the Marauders all over again.

James was dead. Peter was a traitor and Remus had chosen to run away to Dumbledore. Hating to admit it, Sirius wondered if he was really the only true Marauder left out of the four. Just thinking that _hurt. _How could everything had gone so horribly wrong?

"You alright Sirius?" Norman stared at him with concern.

"Oh yes, sorry. I was thinking is all," Sirius answered sheepishly giving him an easy smile before waving very airily at the other. "Got any more places for us to check out?"

The other male paused shifting thoughtfully. "There's always the Pokemon Centre. A lot of people go there to eat, sleep or get direction. It's not that far from here, besides I need to heal up my team." He said informatively.

Ah yes. Pokemon. Sirius hadn't been blind to not realize he was stuck in a completely different world, everything screamed that way especially with the strange creatures walking around all over the place with humans had anything to say. While he didn't know much about these _creatures_nor the place but, Sirius managed to remain under the radar so far keeping his mouth shut while soaking in the information that Norman was providing him. It made things easier in case something happened which caused him to be alone.

Sirius was certain after all things time he'd be able to survive. After all he had managed to live in a cave for an entire year eating nothing but rats and insects to keep him alive, as disgusting as it was. There wasn't anything Sirius wouldn't do in order to stay by Harry's side.

The Pokemon Centre eerily reminded him of a hospital, looking all posh and proper with the giant insignia hanging on the centre of the building. The two had quickly entered the place where they had been greeted by a woman with _pink _hair of all things! PINK! Just what type of world did he end up? For some odd reason Sirius didn't think this would be the only odd thing he was going to encounter in this particular place. Shaking his head before parking himself into one of the chairs by the counter, watching as his companion had placed several red and white balls into a tray.

What there those things? He had seen them on a lot of other people as well.

His line of thought never finished as Norman had returned from the counter taking the chair opposite of his own, instantly sinking into happily. Sirius chuckled, shaking his head. In the little time that he had known the other male; the action seemed a bit unlike Norman, he would have never guessed he had a lazy side to him.

"Long day?" Sirius teased with a grin.

Norman let out an exasperated sigh. "Travelling from the Hoenn region by plane and then taking a train from Olivine City to Goldenrod, having a quick battle with another gym leader before heading to the Convention at Whitney's gym. I haven't had a moments rest until now."

"Sounds tough," Sirius commented sympathetically briefly wondering what a gym leader's job was but kept quite as he tried to fish for more information. "Is it often you do this?"

"Not really. It's rare for gym leaders outside of other regions to gather unless it is for an emergency, thankfully which isn't it. This is our annual get together in which leaders are brought together to mix and further political bonds without regions," Norman answered drawing out a long, tired and heavy yawn. His cheeks tingled red. "Sorry about that."

Sirius shook his head. "Nah, don't worry about it." He dismissed easily, deciding to change the subject. "So you have kids?"

"Two. May and Max, my pride and joy." Norman beamed happily, instantly sitting upwards smiling radiantly. "Max just started his Pokemon Journey a year and some ago, he came in 16th place at the Ever Grande League before heading to Kanto to participate in the Indigo League. I couldn't be more proud of him! My daughter, on the other hand, is a co-ordinator." The smile slipped becoming a thin frown as his eyes shined with disapproval. "I'm... not fond of contests to be honest. But, it makes her happy, so I give her as much support as I can."

Sirius slowly nodded. "I see...still she must have done well. After all, she is your daughter Norman."

"Y-Yeah! S-she's done really well!" Norman stated rather hurriedly blushing madly at the compliment that had been given. "I make sure to only watch her contests, and help her master some techniques when she comes home. It's really the only thing I can help her with."

"What exactly are contests? I don't know much about them." Sirius confessed truthfully, confused by the implications that were appearing in his words.

A moment of silence had fallen over them feeling the confused stare remaining firm on him. Sirius wonder briefly if he had said something wrong."Oh you must come from a place where contests either don't exist or aren't that popular." The gym leader concluded with a chuckle. "Basically...think Pokemon and humans in gets ups. Acting like circus animals, trying to 'awe' the audience by appearance," The disgust was loud and clear in his tone. "I will admit some skill is required, but in the end it's all about making everything 'pretty' and into a 'lightshow'!"

Sirius' stomach did a flip, causing him to shudder visibly. "That's...disgusting."

"There's nothing I can do, May enjoys it." The man sighed, shaking his head. "I can't and will not take that away from her. No matter how much I dislike it, I have absolutely no right. And at least Max enjoys battling."

Battling? The way it sounded it made Sirius instantly thinking up dueling. "What about your wife? What does she think?"

"...Caroline is...irrelevant." Norman stated hesitantly, frowning thinly. "She cares deeply for our children but...they are days when I wonder about that."

Okay. That was obviously the wrong choice of a subject to bring up.

"What about you?"

Huh?

Sirius blinked rapidly trying to process the question. "What about me?"

"I've told you a bit about myself and my kids, it's fair that you share something about you and your godson." Norman stated easily, before frowning. "Unless it's something you don't wish to talk about. In which case I won't pry," his tone and eyes were sincere upon saying those words as he leaned back into the chair.

Was...was Norman letting him off the hook? No. He was giving him space. Normally people would pester him about his problems, or rather constantly trying to get him to talk before chiding him for his mistakes twelve years ago and now, here was someone else that was willing to listen and allowed him to keep things to himself. It was almost like a dream come true!

"I...thank you," Sirius murmured softly. "Harry is...my godson. We haven't really seen each other until a few years ago, he was living with his _relatives_the Dursleys. I don't know much about the details concerning that environment but I know that Harry isn't happy there." What was he doing? "He's quiet boy, but rather remarkable boy. He has a rather large heart, and a great deal of compassion and understanding. He's rather small for his age, and brave."

Norman laughed. "Is that so? Your godson sounds like someone I know." His eyes twinkled warmly gazing at him. "I'm looking forward to meeting Harry."

"I'm sure you won't be disappointed," Sirius declared with a grin on his face. "Maybe one day I'll meet your Max and May."

"I'd be surprised if you didn't," Norman said calmly, smiling.

Before Sirius could even make a comment the doors of the Pokemon Centre opened catching his attention, his eyes widened and practically leaped out of his chair staring in shock. His body went absolutely stiff unable to tear his gaze away from the doors, a wave of emotion instantly washed over him. At first he thought sight was deceiving him as the two that had entered came to a full stop staring back at him falling into a similar shock. Neither of them moved.

"Harry..."

"S...SIRIUS?!"

(ROU)

Awkwardness. That was the only word that he could think of that could describe this entire moment. The four sat in a closed room near the bedroom area of the centre, no one dared to say anything as the tension seemed to steadily grow while the silence remained. Not that a whole lot could be said at this point. Granted, it hadn't been Harry's intention to skip out on telling his godfather where he was going or what he had been doing, then again he wasn't certain that Sirius would even begin to understand the events that had caused him to end up where he was. Not to mention trying to avoid giving themselves away in front of the other two was going to be a giant pain in the ass.

So there had been the exchange of glances and eyebrows going around in what seemed like a circle.

Eventually, the silence had finally been broken by Volkner. "So...you're Harry's godfather?" The blonde guessed eyeing the man with a bit of interest, pressing his lips together as he stared into the opposite eyes as if he was attempting to read the other male.

"Yes." Sirius responded sparing him a brief glance before returning his attention back towards Harry. "I'm glad I found you, you gave me quite a scare when you weren't back at home." _'And the fact you grew a few feet and gained some muscles is new.'_Raising an eyebrow watching as the cheeks burned on the younger boy's face before he waved his hand dismissively. "Next time, make sure to tell me before you go running off like that, okay?"

Harry winced visibly. The stabbing of guilt made themselves known to him. It wasn't as if he had a choice in the matter anyway, regardless he understood the frustration from where the other wizard was coming from. He at least owed him an explanation. "Sorry Sirius, it just...happened." He answered truthfully, not bothering to lie to him. "I'll try to make sure that it doesn't happen again-"

"At least not without me coming along," Sirius interrupted cutting him off with a smirk on his face, his smile twitched into a grin watching as how easily flustered his charge was. He was glad to see that his godson still maintained that part of his personality, chuckling slightly underneath his breath as his eyes flickered towards their third companion; whom at the moment he hadn't been able to asset just yet. The blonde had yet to do anything to gain his disapproval or his distrust, not to mention that this guy had managed to befriend Harry rather easily, which was a great feat in it's self. For the time being he would be civil and friendly towards him, if only for the sake of his godson.

For now.

A small laugh came from Harry, his eyes gleamed with delight and gentleness. "Deal," He agreed sincerely, nodding firmly at his promise. "But the same goes for you, as well Sirius. I don't want you to run off without me!"

"Who me? Never!" Sirius adopted a very innocent look smiling at him.

Harry snorted. "Yeah, right!"

"Anyway, I never caught your name." Sirius of course was referring to the blonde male sitting beside Harry, resting his dark eyes upon the stoic and distant blue orbs staring back at him. It seemed that he shared a similar interest in him as Sirius did in the other. "Name's Sirius, if you hadn't caught on by now."

Volkner nodded slowly. His eyes steadily locked onto to his briefly glancing at Norman before returning. "Volkner, I'm... a friend."

'_Why was there a pause?'_Harry wondered curiously, eyebrows furrowed thinly pressing his lips together. "I met Volkner not too long ago, when Ash brought us here-"

"Wait Ash is here?" Norman asked curiously before realizing what he done his expression became sheepish sending a smile towards the younger's direction. "Sorry, please continue."

Harry gave him a tiny smile, nodding at him. "Anyway, I met Volkner when I retreated to the back of the end room. We ended up leaving not to long after my arrival in order to avoid...Flint was it?" Waiting confirmation from Volkner before continuing, and received. "And went to the beach for a bit before heading here," carefully omitting the part about Bagon and Piplup from the conversation. For now at least, he was already saying far too much than Harry would have liked.

"Who is Ash exactly?" Sirius cocked an eyebrow in confusion. "A friend of yours-"

Here it was. Harry thought to himself feeling his body go rigid struggling not to wither under his godfather's stare, he hadn't been prepared enough and with Volkner here with him left lying out of the question. Only the truth could be said. "Ash...he's my cousin, Sirius." He said slowly watching as the look of disbelief appeared on the older male's face. "I know what I say seems farfetched but...I was able to find through a family meeting," which was somewhat true to a degree wearing giving his godfather a serious look. "Believe me."

It felt like the world around them had come to a halt watching as Sirius gained a passive expression. The dark eyes gleamed that was unreadable at most which caused their booth to fill with unresolved tension once more, nearly chocking on Harry.

"I believe you."

He hadn't reacted immediately instead opting to blinking. "Y...you do?"

"Of course I do!" Sirius stated with a smirk on his face folding his arms against his chest, raising an eyebrow in a very playful like manner. "Do you honestly think I wouldn't? I know you, Harry. You wouldn't go ahead and do something stupid like that without some source of proof," Letting out a large bellow that echoed loudly, the sincerity and cheerfulness within his voice had brought the air at easy around them, allowing the younger wizard to relax back into his chair as Sirius leaned forward, his eyes gentle. "What matters to me is that you're safe and happy, Harry."

"Sirius..."

"However," The stern tone that came from him caused Harry to freeze instantly. "I am disappointed that you didn't contact me before hand. And believe me when I say, we _will _be having a talk about this. Understood?" The stare hadn't gone unnoticed.

It took nearly all of Harry's willpower not to sink straight into his chair. He was unused to seeing Sirius' parental side, not that it was unwelcomed. "I'll...make sure to keep that in mind. Promise!"

"As long as you promise," Sirius conceded thoughtfully, nodding.

"...Your enjoying this aren't you?"

The smirk stretched across Sirius' face. "Immensely."

At least one thing that Harry was glad to see was his godfather's sense of humor and playfulness; he had missed it over all these several months that had been spent away for his training, the stabbing feel of guilt returning inside of him, attempting to ignore as their booth began to erupt with conversations and laughter. This was what kept the guilt at bay, watching and joining in on the peacefulness that seemed to emerged. He only wished everyday could be likes this.

( ROU )

"FUCK!"

Ash gripped his shoulder jumping back, gripping his arms and staring angrily towards the thing that had caused his injury. He didn't know what it was, just that it had appeared out of nowhere and began causing trouble immediately upon arriving, being whom he was, Ash wasn't about to let it do whatever it wanted. Unfortunately, it appeared that the thing managed to gain the upper hand of the situation rather quickly, knocking aside cars and slamming it's tentacles straight into buildings; the screams of innocents echoed through his ear loudly nearly breaking his concentration as he quickly avoided a swing of one of it's arms. The stinging of the pain rang clear through his body.

How did this thing even get to Goldenrod anyway? He hadn't sensed any Aura being used, nor magic or chakra either. But that wasn't what his attention was focusing on, not yet anyway. That could be saved for later. What his attention was on, was how the thing looked and found himself torn between being disturbed and fascinated.

The creature looked like a cross between a fully-grown Tentacruel and a giant Serviper allowing it access to the land. The killing intent was flowing so freely, expanding everywhere he looked. If Ash has been trained he could have chocked under the pressure it was exerting. Nonetheless, he had to take care of it immediately before more damage was done... and the loss of more lives, his eyes flickered towards a crush body that made him forcefully closing them in sorrowful respect, throwing himself towards into the battle. His legs pushed himself upwards towards the skies, successfully landing a kick against the creature sharply turning his body backwards and landing on the ground several feet away again.

Keeping a distance allowed him to get a firm and fully image of what he was up against. From the looks of it, Ash wasn't entirely sure he'd be able to win. It was far too large to handle upon his own not to mention being busy keeping Morty alive.

The ghost trainer had followed him straight into the battle without asking any question only to be forced to take cover once seeing the creature at hand.

It was times like these that got Ash really annoyed, unfortunately there was really nothing he was able to do about it. Other then get the job down as fast as possible. His body shifted into a defensive stance using his arms into to block the barraging of the tentacles before being thrown back straight into the chair. A sharp pain jolted through his body unleashing a major yell of pain, his body felt stunned and confused unable to pull himself back up.

Damn it. He had allowed himself to be taken by surprise.

_What am I supposed to? _His eyes flickered towards Morty, whom had left his hiding spot and began to assist by standards in order to help them evacuate the premises. His body was washed with relief seeing that the area was slowly being unoccupied, almost allowing him to go allow out in need be. _'But..._'

How was he supposed beat this thing?

"I can't do this...alone..." Ash hisses pushing his back against the car using it to bring up back on his feet. While his injuries weren't the worst, this was his first real fight outside of sparring thus finding it difficult to adapt quickly, not that he'd have a choice in the manner. Leaping to the side the tentacle slammed the remains of the car missing him by mere seconds, the sounds of the crush had echoed through the air loudly before being tossed to the nearest building, nearly causing it collapse.

"I need back up," Ash hissed panting rather heavily; he winced again upon feeling the pain coming from his back. It meant that he was unable to move as quickly now, and had to be even more careful with what he did... while trying to keep himself alive at the same time. '_Great. Just what I needed... could this day get ANY worse?!' _

"ASH WATCH OUT!"

The shout snapped him out of his thoughts returning to reality only to get upper-cut by one of the tentacles and got sent backwards hurtling through the air, closing his eyes tightly as he waited for impact. However, he knew that it wouldn't be the ground that waited him. No, he had complete faith that someone would catch him.

And he had been.

His eyes opened and saw that he had landed in Naruto's arms. "...What brings you here?"

"What does it looks like dumbass? Saving your scrawny ass!" The blonde retorted sharply, promptly dropping him but gave his cousin enough time to land on his feet. A mischevious smirk appeared on his face upon getting a pointed glare from Ash. "What? At least I showed up didn't I? Could leave you alone leaving you to fight this thing!" Jabbing his thumb towards the creature, and frowned. "Speaking of which what the hell is that thing?"

"I don't know, but we need to stop."

The Shinobi nodded in grim agreement. "Did ya contact Harry?"

"He's probably already on his way here knowing him," Ash reassured easily, not taking his eyes off the creature and lowered his voice. "Should we use our chakra?" His eyes glanced behind him noting that Morty had been joined with Brawly in helping the evacuation. His lips were pressed thinly together. "Where are the others leaders?"

"Lance's taking care'em, don't worry about it." The blonde countered with a wave of his hands, before punching it into his fist and follow his discrete gaze. "I don't see why we shouldn't," He murmured to his cousin with a frown. "Better using it then letting people die."

"You paint such a lovely picture," Ash shot back dryly.

"I do try you know."

The trainer rolled his eyes. "You brought Brawly with you?"

"Not like I had a choice. He came right after me when I felt the ground shaking, next thing I knew I was busy trying to catch you." Naruto told with a shrug, his sapphire eyes focused on the creature before them. His fists were already up and ready. "I can do a Ransengan-"

"No." Ash cut in sharply glaring at him. "You use that move way too much. I'd rather we use it as a last resort."

Naruto glared. "Why not?! If we can finish this faster the better!"

"...I know I'm just trying to be careful."

"What do you have in mind then?!" Naruto demanded glaring at him harshly.

Ash hesitated for several moments before letting out a sharp sigh. "We don't really have a choice in the matter, right? Let's give it our all then. Are you still able to make Shadow Clones?"

"What kind of question is that? Of course I can still make Shadow clones!" Naruto boasted loudly and proudly, slamming a fist against his chest wearing a shit-eating grin while his eyes narrowed into slits upon looking at the creature. His hands instantly went together making the signs needed for the Jutsu to work. "_Kage no Bunshin no jutsu!" _The sounds of smoke appeared revealing four more Naruto's appearing around them, each looking just as eager and ready to go as the original one.

"On three?"

The swarm of blondes smirked at him. "BELIEVE IT!"

"...Never say that again," Ash said deadpanned.

Ignoring the pouts that had formed upon the original and the clone's faces none of them had time to continue their conversation as the creature unleashed a powerful, angry yell that pierced the skies before waving it's tentacles rapidly slamming them onto the ground as they shot up and lunged towards them with surprising speed nearly catching them off guard. The disburse from the ground provoked dust to blind their sights, forcing them to rely upon their ears using their arms to cover their mouths. Nothing could be heard clearly due to the sounds of screaming and endless destruction still alarmingly continuing surprisingly enough; nevertheless they had a job to get done. And quickly.

The dust clouds were pierced by one of the tentacles shooting at Ash like a spear, trying to grab on to him or skewer him. He wasn't entirely sure, focusing on staying alive rather than finding out. Making the swift decision not stay, Ash pushed upon his legs placing his arms over him to cover his face as he leaped through the dust, hoping to get through it and regain his vision. Naruto had already escaped just prior before, if the sounds of his voice had anything to say about it.

A snort escaped from his lips bemused tilting his body once he land on the ground, skidding slightly until coming to a halt. His head snapped towards the direction, rolling his eyes.

Naruto was going all out again.

"Piiika...CHU!"

The array of electricity had zoomed past him hitting directly against the creature as it loud out a massive cry, stumbling backwards. His partner leaped upon his shoulder as jolts of electricity flickered from the red cheeks glaring at the thing before them with angry, falling into an offensive stance and growled loudly.

Ash glanced at smiling. "Thanks Pikachu, at least we know it doesn't like electricity."

"In that case, Ash. Perhaps Brawly and I can lend some assistance?" The familiar voice spoke up and turned to see Morty standing beside Brawly along with Gengar and Hariyama looking ready to fight. "Neither of us have any idea what's going on, but we're willing to lend you an hand. We can't allow this creature to get further into the city!" The stern look on the leader's face was very rare, due to his laid back attitude and soft nature, but it seemed that this situation brought out his more serious side. "Gengar! Back up Ash and Pikachu as much as you can!"

Brawly punched his fists looking at Hariyama. "You too buddy!"

"Thanks guys," Ash gave them a sharp nod before dashing towards the creature, brandishing kunai from his pockets using them to slash at the slippery tentacles that launched straight at him. His body turned dodging one, flickering his wrist upwards slamming the blade straight into the flesh cutting it off.

The monstrous shriek echoed so...wildly. The decapitated tentacle fell the ground, twitching mindlessly before coming to a halt and dissolving into strange gooey.

Ash covered his ears letting out a hiss as the shriek continued. "Ah d-damn! It's so loud!"

"P-pi..."

It was at that point where Naruto landed beside him also covering his ear and fell straight towards his knees, gripping them roughly biting down on his lips while his clones began to disburse from the scene. While they hadn't exactly done a great deal of damage to the creature, it was better than nothing at all and provided them somewhat an advantage. No matter how little it was. However, how long that would last was unknown thus it prominent that they'd hurry and finish it off.

"HARIYAMA USE EARTHQUAKE!"

"GENGAR USE SHADOW BALL!"

Beneath them the ground began to shake violently spreading furiously creating large cracks that shot towards the creature placing it off balance as it sink deep into the ground unable to move. Next came a large barrage of dark purple orbs of energy that flew towards it, hitting directly as the sounds of explosions were heard and smoke appeared. Another shriek came from the creature, it's tentacles were now up in the air waving about angrily pushing up against the buildings and slamming down on them. It was a miracle that they hadn't shattered underneath the weight.

The volume of the shriek had lessened allowing Ash and Naruto to remove their hands regaining their composure, while giving the two trainers a thumbs up in thanks.

"At least it's trapped," Ash murmured to the blonde lunging forward with his cousin not falling to far behind him. "Maybe we can dispatch it now."

Naruto nodded. "Agreed! But got any ideas?"

"Several." Ash remarked lowly glaring at the creature with a cold smirk on his face, the kunai hanged lowly at his sides snapping them upwards across the other arms. "I'm going to go cut it."

"...Koga's been a bad influence on you," Naruto concluded flatly.

The trainer rolled his eyes shooting him a pointed stare. "And Bruno wasn't on you?"

"What's that supposed to mean!?" The blonde nearly yelled glaring fiercely at the other boy, the two jumped to the side manoeuvring out of the way of a tentacle. The creature had regained some of it's sense, or at least managed to figure out whom was an enemy returning to targeting them. It was just a barrelful of fun!

The two leaped onto the tentacle running upwards using it as a stairway to get to the top of the creature. They were met with two sharp, snake like eyes glaring at them angrily before getting blown away by a long, giant tongue that was oozing with strange spit, that neither of them wanted to get of them. The spit was a see-through like green and had a disgusting stench almost causing Naruto to hurl right on the spot, as Ash pulled him away and moved towards the top of the creature's back.

"So what now?"

Ash paused. "...I'm working on it."

"That makes me feel OH so MUCH better!" Naruto shot scathingly at the dark-haired male sending him a withering stare.

"Hey! You didn't have to come and help me, you made the choice!" Ash defended himself seriously holding up a hand in defense returning the stare just as darkly. Inwardly, he cursed at the blonde before pushing the thoughts to the side. Fighting amongst themselves at a time like this wasn't a good thing, narrowing his eyes around as his mind began to race with swirling ideas and thoughts. His lips pressed together thinly, there had to be away to defeat these things.

"Ash?"

The trainer threw his head at him. "What?"

"We're surrounded..."

His eyes blinked slowly looking upwards seeing all the tentacles hanging above them almost piercing the skies.

They were screwed.

"Well," Ash began clicking behind his teeth with his tongue stare. "I'm all out of ideas."

Naruto gulped. "You know what? So am I."

"Shit."

The pending doom loomed over them menacingly watching in mesmerized fascination as all eight tentacles began to encircle around them, as if they were mocking them. In fact, Ash and Naruto were certain that's what was happening. That only helped to ignite his anger, clutching his hands tightly into his kunai glaring hatefully.

Like hell they'd fall here!

Ash opened his mouth to say something just to be cut off by a vibrant sound that torn through one of the tentacles, which fell backwards down below unleashing a geyser full of blood that sprayed rapidly causing the red liquid to rain down. All of the other tentacles shivered in unison at the loss of another as the creature unleashed for a third time another powerful shriek which started the shatter windows from the buildings around within their sights.

A sharp swish captured their eyes as they saw Harry standing there with his hand, raising an eyebrow and waved lazily. "Sorry guys, am I late?"

"Where the hell were you?!" Naruto demanded throwing an arm pointing shaking his eyes were narrowed into slits glaring. "We've been fighting this thing off for almost an hour now! You took your sweet ass time getting here!"

Harry rolled his eyes. "Sorry ran into a few... problems on the way."

"Problems?" The sarcasm and doubt in Ash's voice hadn't been lost on the wizard.

"Yes. Problems I'll tell you guys all about it later. Right now we have this monster to kill, so let's go to it!" Harry said swiftly avoiding the answer, his eyes glanced backwards to the other tentacles. "First thing's first; getting rid of the tentacles. If we removed those we should be able to take out the creature, I'll take the back." He went into his leader mode starting to give out commands to the other two as his eyes narrowed in a serious fashion.

Naruto smirked. "Then I'll take THIS SIDE!" Lunging forward and made hand signs making Shadow clones as he was in the air, charging full force towards his designated side.

"Leaving me with these bad boys," Ash murmured half-turned his head to the side, shaking his head in exasperation. "You really know how to treat a guy, Harry."

The wizard winced. "Sorry," Harry said honestly looking very apologetic at the other boy. He hated it when his instincts took over starting to throw out commands left and right, after years of being the leader of his group of friends it was difficult to simply step down and hand over to someone else. For that he couldn't help feel rather ashamed of that. "I'll...try to stop-"

"Nah, don't worry about it." Ash dismissed easily folding his arms to the back of his head and grinned widely, curving his waist around glancing back at him. "Good luck!"

Harry nodded at him. "You too, Ash. Be careful!"

The trainer grinned while Pikachu waved from his shoulder together darting into the air to deliver a sharp kick to one of the tentacles, covering his own area immediately getting to work whipping out his kunai's in a cross fashion starting to slice, cutting in a clear cut manner that almost made his movements seem invisible to the normal human eye. His arms shot as once one blade going on top of the other as a flash of light jammed through the tentacle, as Ash pulled back slightly raising his arms and began to turn it to the side watching with glee as it ripped through the rest of the tentacles.

The sound of shrieking grew stronger and stronger as each tentacle began to be torn away from it. Blood rained down hard on them until not a single arm was left, red was all that remained on the ground leaving the three teens standing on it.

"Now that those disgusting things are finally out of the way," Naruto began rubbing his hands together with a smirk on his face, his blue eyes glinted with an amount of mischief that could be seen in his cousins eyes. "I say we do things the nice old fashion way-"

"Blow it up?" Ash and Harry asked in unison, smirking at the blonde.

"The Tri-Ransengan!"

A technique that the three of them had prepared together during their training placing all of their chakra together in order to form a giant Ransegan, of course the first few attempts hadn't been glamorous and ended in near failure. But, after a large amount of time and patience that managed to master it, though the jutsu was heavily exhausting resulting in the three to reserve it's usage unless it was necessary. Such as the finishing blow!

"Ready!" Harry moved towards the right placing both of his hands on the right side of the blonde's free hand.

Ash ran over to the left doing the same for the left side. "Ready and waiting!"

The foxy smirk on the blonde's face was all the two needed to know as they began to pour their chakra into the blonde's hand in a circulative motion, watching as the ball began to flash brightly with the three of them at work. Once a bright blue ball had changed into a pure white, exploding with power and energy that had never been seen before, just standing near it was proving to be a major struggle. The force was pushing them away the long the three remained together, holding it tightly as chakra slowly leaked out from the cracks of their hands. Sharing a nod, the three leaped into the air as high as they could averting their bodies pushing their arms forward.

The Tri-Ransengan came crashing down on the creature pushing straight through the centre drilling all the way down. The sounds of bones breaking during their forceful entry echoed loudly yet protected them from the painful screams of the creature back on the surface as it collided straight to the ground.

The blade enveloped brightly. An explosion appeared invoking large clouds of dust to speed through the city spreading like wildfire, vanishing slowly as few remained.

Thankfully, the three had managed to come out of the creature, while drenched and sticky, completely fine watching the large thing starting to unleash smoke from it's body beginning to vanish at a rapid rate until their was nothing left. At least, to their surprise and bafflement, a short sword along with a small bag rapped with a tiny string wrapped around the top keeping it shut. Neither of them moved immediately exchanging stunned looks before picking them up noting that there was nothing malicious coming from them.

Naruto opened the bag, blinking rapidly. "...Why is there money in here? Scratch that, why does a monster have a bag of money in it?"

"And a short sword for that matter?" Ash questioned holding the weapon up, inspecting it closely. The craftsmanship was well down from the look of it, appearing new rather than old and rusty. Much to his interest the sword rather pretty heavy, forcing him to use both hands rather instead one just too simply hold it.

"Shouldn't we be trying to figure out how exactly this thing got where and just who brought it here?" Harry raised an eyebrow at his cousin, frowning having his arms folded against his chest.

Ash stared back. "No. I'm actually thinking on how we're going to clean this mess up, knowing Lance probably some kind of prank or something along those lines."

"Joy. As long as we don't have to give a press conference, I'm happy." The wizard interjected rolling his eyes dryly, a ruefully smile appeared briefly before vanishing.

Naruto perked up at that. "Press conference-"

"NO." The two vehemently shot down giving him a very stern look as the blonde sulked in response.

"Fine what do we do now?" Naruto asked, pouting.

Neither of the two were even able to answer that question feeling an intense feeling being directed towards them and the shadows that hanging above the two. Ash and Harry didn't trust themselves entirely to move nor to speak at all, dreading what could possibly be behind them. At first their instincts screamed at them to ignore what was behind and leave, unfortunately, for their curiosity and guilt gaining the upper hand making them turn before they had even realized what was happening staring into the eyes of several others.

One in particular...

"HARRY JAMES POTTER WHAT THE BLOODY HELL IS GOING ON HERE?!"

(ROU)

Chapter Four-End.

Just want to say thank you to my awesome beta, Alec McDowell for doing a great job with the editing. I apologize that this chapter took rather long to get done, fighting scenes aren't my expertise; so if anyone has any tips, tricks or advice for writing those type of scenes that would be great.

When leaving your review please make sure to tell me what you liked about it, when could be improved upon it and just where you think this fic is going. I'd great appreciate some feedback!


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

The hot, furious eyes of Sirius stared back at the three of them appearing ready to erupt at any given moment waiting for the scowling to commence yet never did. He managed to compose himself wearing a stern look in place of the frighteningly anger one that he wore before instead grey eyes narrowed looming over in parental disappointment, it had been enough to make each of them chagrin in response making them feel like little kids again. None of them were able to provide an excuse for the sounds fell upon their lips as they tried and looked down at the ground. Even if Naruto and Ash hadn't and didn't know Sirius the fact he was able to project such a strong wave of them showed just how concerned he had been for them, and how guilty they truly were.

Taking in the destruction that surrounded them; the flickering flames and the ruined buildings, the managed to get away from the area as quickly as possible upon hearing the sharp sirens that echoed in the far distance, remaining provided to be a problem.

Silently the group left the area with much haste in order to avoid the authorities. Deciding to double back to the gym going through the back dodging the rest of the guests; Harry, Ash and Naruto were still covered in slime from the battle, while it had lessened during the trip back to the gym, it still remained very visibly opting to take wash up in the bathroom when it was unoccupied. The rest waited outside keeping s watch for anyone that would appear, thankfully, no one had as the three teen emerged looking better for wear and preceded into a secluded room on the upper floor once entering it Brawly closed the door carefully keeping his back on it. The others piled or rather, the three younger ones were practically forced into the seats exchanging nervous glanced between one another sweating rapidly uncertain of how much trouble they would be in.

"Now then," Sirius tone was hard and strain pacing back and forth his eyes remained on them. "What the hell do you think the three of you were doing?! You could have been hurt or even killed?!"

Naruto had been the first to object flinging from the seat defiantly glaring at him. "If we didn't fight back a whole bunch of people could have been killed and it's not like they have the weapons to combat that thing anyway!" Pointing a finger towards him angrily and furthering adding. "Who are you tell to be mad at us, it's not like you were jumping in getting ready to help fight!"

"Naruto!" Harry hissed jabbing his elbow into the blonde's ribs, glaring fiercely at his cousin glancing back at Sirius with worry. "He does have a point, Sirius. No one else was jumping into help, not that they could, we were trained to fight these things and protect people. I know you don't want to hear it, but it's true. It's why we were brought here in the first place." There had been a large chance of the infection showing it's self, though whether or not the others had known about the strange creatures forming from them he didn't know, it seemed too new, too unexpected and far too wild and mindless. Like a new borne. "Besides it's not like we were badly injured!"

Sirius gapped at him before shutting angrily. "Not badly injured? NOT BADLY INJURED?! You COULD HAVE BEEN!"

"But we weren't!" Ash added in cheerful, only to get snarled at back Sirius causing the boy to grimace.

"What exactly is going on?" Norman spoke up quietly eyeing the three with a frown on his face, moving himself from the wall he had been leaning against. "You seem to known an awful lot about this. Do you mind shedding some light onto the subject?"

"I'm rather curious as well," Morty confessed concerned.

Volkner remained silent wearing a stoic expression keeping the distant sapphire eyes locked on them not budging from his spot.

"It's... not that we don't want to tell you guys, really. But we're not even sure if we can tell you anything," Ash spoke up slowly, biting down on his lips hesitantly as Pikachu rubbed against his cheek reassuringly. "We have orders." Which was true; they were to conduct their mission and not say anything.

Sirius slammed his first against the wall. "You shouldn't even be doing this in the first place! You're kids! Teenagers! You should be worrying about school, homework and dating. Not fighting and the fate of the planet!"

"Kinda too late for that," Harry piped up nonchalantly.

"Yep." Ash nodded sagely.

Naruto smirked arrogantly. "Like we would have it any other way!"

Seeing that the long-haired man was on the verge of screaming aloud Volkner had decided to take pity on him stroking his chin thoughtfully. "But what was that monster, I've never seen anything like it before, and where did it come from? How did it appear unnoticed anyway?"

"It's not anything from home either," Harry commented frowning deeply, looking back at his godfather with concern.

"Hey, hey it's long gone for now right? Let's leave for trying to figuring out where it came from later," Brawly brought up clapping his hands together to get their attention. "We should focus on how to stop other things from appearing and causing havoc, I mean, they couldn't be the only ones right?" His words brought hesitant looks upon the rest of the group's faces looking at one another. Realizing the impact of his words the blunet whacked himself. "Oh man I said something stupid didn't I?"

Norman shook his head. "No. You brought up something we should take seriously, Brawly. They're maybe more of those creatures running around that we haven't taken into account. We need to keep our eyes open and be alert."

"That's if they continue showing up," Volkner murmured under his breath, the frown remained on his face going into deep thought. He looked rather troubled appearing to be attempting to solve the problem by himself, brows furrowed in concentration and threw his head towards them yet remained silent; sapphire eyes jolted with an unreadable gleam that appeared briefly before vanishing. "Whatever. What's done is done, in the mean time is there really anything that you can possible tell us?"

"It's not like we know more than you do," Naruto answered folding his arms against his chest thinking deeply squinting his eyes together.

Ash opened his mouth to say something only to close it adheres afterwards, uncomfortably shifting his body away from the rest of the group averting their gazes. It wasn't entirely true, they knew more than they did, but couldn't tell them. It's not like they'd believe them anyway and he doubted that the any of the heads let alone Lance would approve.

What were they going to do?

(1)

Everything was going according to plan, slipping into the hidden passages leading into the base deep within the mountain's caverns. Nagato had been given the duty to eliminate the ones that threatened his family, namely, the organization that Yahiko, Konan and himself had originally created: The Akatsuki. How strange it was going from running the massive criminal group to destroying it. In the beginning upon hearing the summons Nagato planned on using his family, of course in a loving fashion as he wished no harm on them, in order to master the Rinnengan and get closer to Naruto in hopes of extracting the Kyuubi. Needless to say his attempts had not only failed utterly miserably, but he had been so easily defeated by the rest of elders, completely humiliated in front of Konan. His pride had been broken into a million pieces, left on the floor unable to move or gather his chakra; he had met his match.

To further the insult he had been openly mocked and belittled. His arrogance had been what ultimately lead him to his downfall, for being undefeated and feared among the ranks of the Akatsuki and the world; Nagato had believed that he had achieved the rightness to be called a '_God_'.

How foolish he had been.

_"Do you really believe that you're the only one that has the Rinnengan?" Elder Suzuki bellowed sternly, bending down to his beaten form and frowned. Her bright blue eyes shifted into a deep purple with several black rings within them revealing her own. "Just because you have the so-called 'Legendary' Rinnengan doesn't make you special Naga-chan. I'll commend you on being able to awaken yours, but you aren't alone child. The rinnegan isn't a weapon of the gods, angels or whatever their calling it now a days, it's just a regular old kekkai genkai that happens to those in our clan. We Uzuamki are masters of deception and hiding the truth, gaining the upper hand of our enemies. This is what it means to be Uzumaki."_

From that point on all of Nagato's disillusions of grandeur had been completely dispelled by the elder. Of course it had taken him awhile to accept the truth of the reality to finally sink into his brain and even longer before he had come to accept it. Everything he had thought... everything he had tried to do...had been useless. Pointless.

Seeking vengeance for all the pain and suffering that they had gone through after all these years felt... childish now.

The resentment and bitterness remained but it had lessened considerably. Being around family and friends, people that Nagato had found himself caring a great deal had a great effect on him. They were the reason why he had infiltrated the base.

There was no way in hell he was going to let any harm come to his family.

No matter what the cost.

"Are you sure about this Nagato?" Konan murmured to him entering the room eyes remained frontwards practically gliding on the ground.

Nagato didn't spare her a glance. "Yes. We need to do this now." His tone had been low and barely heard keeping a note of the members within the room. Nearly all of them with the exception of Kisame and Itachi, whom was still searching for the Jinchuuriki of the Yonbi; which was of no consequence to them. He doubted that they would be able to. His eyes skimmed looking for that one person that they needed to deal with first and foremost; Madara or better known as Tobi.

His eyes narrowed into dark slits upon setting his sights upon him. That bastard had been the one to begin his spiral downwards into his depression and begin the reign of destruction that swept across the Elemental Countries spilling the blood of innocent and guilty alike. He'd make that bastard regret for manipulating him, for hurting his family and for all the other grievences that he brought onto this world.

Nagato vowed it.

(2)

Night had fallen not to long afterwards as the gym empty quickly a few stragglers had stayed behind while others had either returned to their hotels or roamed the town. Not wanting to arouse suspicion the group left earlier; Lance had contacted the three via a message requesting to meet them to meet with him in a spare house near the radio tower. Unfortunately, tensions were running high around them as they made their way towards the house. No one seemed to be rather happy with what was going on though no one appeared less than happy then Sirius, which was reasonable, having disappeared without telling him and was connecting to the strange events that were occurring most likely did nothing to set the man's mind at ease.

It made Harry wonder just how much time had passed since he had left his home – and for that matter how the same for Naruto. When they had arrived back into Ash's world, it seemed that absolutely no time had passed since leaving and started their training, but now that they had left the Void, had time once again started to move?

He didn't know.

"Who is this Lance anyway?" Sirius growled gruffly under his breath, hands stuffed into his pockets looking around irritably.

Brawly beamed. "He's like the strongest trainer in all of the Johto and Sinnoh! The champion of both region's man strictly uses Dragon-types on his team!"

"And he's completely, utterly full of himself." Volkner added with disinterest rolling his eyes.

"_Great."_Sirius' emphasised flatly, burying of his hands onto his face and shook. "Just what I'm looking forward to meeting a pompous, stick up his ass celebrity."

"Lance isn't that bad, a bit annoying and stuck-up, yes." Norman frowned defending the man. "But he's a good person and does his best to protect his home, not to mention he trains and cares for his Pokemon too."

Ash snorted audibly, rolling his eyes sarcastically. "You make him sound as if he's some saint or something." While his and Lance's relationship had somewhat started to repair it was taking time. It was difficult for him to simply forgive his father for putting his mother – and himself through the years without him, never once calling or even hearing a heard from him. During his younger years there had been days when Ash wondered if his so-called dad ever truly cared for them, that he was dead or never existed in the first place but now that he knew the truth of the matter. The alternatives sounded far better.

"You don't hold him in high regard, Ash?" Volkner sounded slightly surprise given the boy's usual attitude blinking rapidly.

"It's not that I hate him or anything," The trainer amended mentally cursing his stupidity reacting with a facade smile. "I just don't think he's as great as he really thinks he is, that's all." Shrugging his shoulders slamming his hands into his pockets with a nerves jitter ignoring the glances his partner was giving him.

"You talk as if you know him," Brawly pointed out nonchalantly, his trademark grin spread across his face leering down at him. "Something that you're not telling us kiddo?"

"Sorry, Brawly unfortunately the perfect baby between you and I just isn't met to be my friend," Ash told him in a teasing tone patting the man's shoulder causing laughter among the group as the martial artist pouted deeply at the comment. A grin formed. "Awww don't look so sad Brawly."

The blunet rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah laugh it up. I'll get you back!"

"I'd so like to see you try!" Ash retorted good-naturedly, mirth danced happily within his brown eyes. The tension around them seemed to dissolve and finally ended up at the door and entered without a hitch; sitting on the couch within the living room were Lance, Clair and elder Shigure; all of them staring giving them short and stiff nods. Swallowing thickly, he took the lead heading straight into the centre quietly.

"Report." Shigure request succinctly.

Naruto, Harry and Ash looked at one another inhaling sharply nodding in unison launching into a swift and sharp explanation of the events that had happened, each from their own perspective, and the help that had been provided during the fight and what information that they managed to gather from it. After several tiring hours they waited quietly. Expectedly, none of them moved, said or did anything afterwards opting to staring intently between them and back at each other until they settled upon staring at them again.

"This confirms exactly what we have initially feared," Shigure stated calmly intertwining his fingers together placing them against his forehead, appearing far older than he truly was. "We have known for some time that there was a possibility of these creatures would begin to venturing and appearing among the worlds, over the years we have managed to fight against them and drive them back to where they had come from. But now, it seems that they have grown stronger in size and power. These creatures have been labelled BIOONS because of their organic like originals and devastating capabilities. They are incredibly dangerous and while I am astonished that you went to fight one by yourselves, I am proud to see that you were able to handle it with maturity but I must caution that if you are to encounter another; please request backup. The faster the BIOONS are dealt with, the less damage better!"

"That's IT?!" Sirius roared leaping off of the seat angrily glaring at the man. "WHAT THE HELL IS THE MATTER WITH YOU? WHY THE HELL SHOULD THEY EVEN BEEN FIGHTING THESE THINGS IN THE FIRST PLACE?!"

"And erm 'the worlds'?" Brawly brought up raising a hand. "Like other planets?"

Volkner's eyes were trained on the man darkly. "And you've known for sometime about these things yet you've told no one?"

"I think you all need to tell us exactly what's going on." Morty concluded, his tone leaving no argument as his eyes flashed darkly and frowned. "After what we have heard today I doubt any of us are willing to leave so easily."

"This does not concern you." Lance argued shaking his head."This is a matter only concerning the Uzumaki clan-"

"NO!" Sirius slammed his fist on the table. "This IS concerning MY godson! Like hell I'm going to lose him to...to... to whatever in the HELL this all is!"

Norman lend against the chair as his smile took a sharp edge. "What's stopping us from taking this information and disturbing it to the public-"

"Who would believe you?" Clair countered with a smirk of her own upon her beautiful features, running a hand through her hair flipping the strands. "You have no proof. You'll be mocked and ridiculed out of every league in the world, and if that doesn't work we can easily silence you." Her eyes darkened at her words becoming stoic and cold.

"Is that a threat." Norman's face hardened. "Clair."

"Hold it!" Ash whistled loudly getting in the middle of the two groups that were steadily heading on the verge of fighting amongst teach other. "We're all friends here, right? And Grand Elder you said that we needed backup right? Why not them? They know what's going on and I think they'll be able to provide us with it! Norman's one of the strongest men in the world, Morty's well versed in the lore of the Pokemon world, a-and Volkner's second to none when it comes with technology and building plus Brawly's one of Bruno's students!"

"Sirius' travelled all through last year," Harry interjected sharply. "He probably picked up a few things here and there that could help us!"

Naruto nodded vehemently backing up his two cousins glaring defiantly at the opposing side. Together the three stood beside one another refusing to budge from their spots until their demands had been met.

"...You do realize that they are outsiders and thus could be considered enemies to the Uzumaki do you not?" The elder huffed after a pause, warily glancing at the bystandards for what a brief moment of time. "To bring them back to the compound could be disasters. They are unknowns to us."

"To you maybe," Ash stated trying to keep his emotions from overwhelming him. "But not to us. I know them-"

Harry shook his head placing a hand upon his shoulder. "No. _We _know them."

It wasn't entirely truly as Naruto had never come into contact with any of Harry's and Ash's friends until today regardless he trusted them and their decision. Gaining allies was pertinent to combat the infection, and help make their forces grow encase they were forced into a wall at some point, which he hoped would never happen. Having them around also expanded their surveillance, gathering Intel, materials, and whatever things would benefit them in the war; even it was a little bit it was still something rather than nothing. Not to mention, while Naruto enjoyed talking with his cousins, the three knew that they needed space from one another and to talk to other people outside.

Plus it was awesome to meet someone else that shared his love for orange no one ever seemed to understand or appreciate it until now!

Lance rubbed his temple exasperated. "It seems that three of you aren't going to relent from this. Keep in mind, while we may give our contest, that doesn't mean that others will be so kind. I will suggest that you one of you will accompany them at a time. That being said," His eyes darted towards five, lingering upon Sirius a bit longer, and returned. "I also assume that you wish for them to be trained?"

"I believe that it would beneficial," Harry answered slowly curbing his words carefully. "Though, of course, I don't necessarily mean in the arts or techniques of the Uzumaki's. But a general regime of training would be best in order to reach the necessary standards before joining us out onto the field. I realize that is highly irregular, but I sincerely doubt the harm in allowing them to least learn at least the basics. After all that's where the three of us started," gesturing towards himself and the other two. "I'm sure that even you can understand that. And, they could develop their own styles. Though, if necessary, we could also provided of a trade of sorts."

Shigure delicately raised an eyebrow. "A trade you say?"

"Of course," Harry answered feeling more certain. "An exchange; a technique for a technique, information for information, that sort of thing; its fair isn't it?"

"Your proposal is interesting." Clair managed to find her voice admits the chaos of the house. "In theory that is!"

"Than put it to the test," Sirius rebuke her, backing up his godson full-force glaring at the woman. He knew exactly what was going on, by no means was Sirius a fool or a novice when it came to politics or matters involving possible alliances. Years under his mother's and father's torturous tutelage he had at least knew how to handle these types of things, moving towards Harry's side, hovering protectively. "Everything begins as a theory until being put into practical use. However, if you are not further convinced by this madam, I am willing to swear an oath and aligned our families." It was a small price to pay, but it was worth it in the long run.

If any of them were surprised by his actions none of them showed it. "An... alliance you say?" Lance questioned curiously, lips threatened to tug and eyes danced bemused. "I must admit Mr. Black you've captured my interest. Tell me what can _you _offer the Uzumaki and Dragon clans?"

"I can offer a lot. Knowledge of the dark arts, weapons, materials, ancient tomes, safe houses, anything and everything under the sun," Sirius answered without a beat. "The Ancient and Noble House of Black does not slack when it comes to allies." It nearly physically pained him to use the title of his old family. Nonetheless he kept telling himself that this was all for Harry's sake. No matter what the price Sirius was willing to do whatever it took to protect his godson, even if that met becoming the Head of Black then so be it.

"That... is a lot. I must confess I wasn't expecting that much," Elder Shigure remarked blinking rapidly, a sly smirk slide onto his face. "You're hiding more than what Harry informs that your naturally capable of."

The wizard raised an eyebrow giving a side smirk in response. "Is that so? Perhaps I should give myself credit for going beyond your expectations."

The elder man merely inclined his head.

"So..." Naruto hesitated biting on his lip. "Are they good now to join us now?"

"Yes. We acknowledge and understand the importance that each of them bring, to turn them away would be stupid upon our part." Lance answered audibly. "That being said, we also known how untrained they are, which is why I think it is agreeable to have the three of you be in charge of their training."

Silence quickly enveloped the room seeing the expressions that the three teens went through; stunned, speechless before they had settled upon a single expression.

Absolute horror.

"WHAT?!"

(3)

"You're late." Tobi informed, his back faced towards Nagato, looking at the sky as they stood on the cliff.

Approaching cautiously yet keeping his distance remaining silent choosing not to give an immediate answer. "Konan and I were being followed neither of us could afford to allow another base of operations to be compromised now could we? Killing him would have also caused us further problems then what's needed right now." Nagato said very smoothly in his monotone. "However, from the reports that I have received from our fellows members we have successfully managed to secure the Nibi from it's host and managed to locate the rogue bijuu; the Sanbi."

The masked man half-turned his head before facing away again. "Yes. It appears that the winds of chance have finally ended up in our favor."

"You are... displeased?" Nagato questioned maintaining the distance between them at a reasonable gap. He couldn't afford letting the other figure out his plan or what he was about to do, trying to act casually around his former superior, Konan and himself were always keeping a reasonable gap between them whenever they met with Tobi. Even in the beginning the two hadn't trusted him. Not too much anyway. They knew that the other had some sort of agenda that he was keeping to himself, then again initially so had they.

"Hm. I wonder," The spiky raven-haired man mused cryptically stroking his chin slowly. "It seems that we are nearing our goal. There problem still remains of getting our hands upon the Kyuubi's host. Konoha has tightened it's security and monitoring movement."

That was news to him as far as he had been aware there was no spies within the ranks in Konoha.

However, if Tobi had planted spies that none of the other members were aware of wouldn't come to a surprise. It had not been the first time the man had done something along the lines of that and kept it from the rest of the members. Nagato couldn't help wonder just what else the man had kept from them and just how much.

"What do you propose?" He managed to get out calmly, mentally chanting to keep himself calm.

The man turned fully around this time opening his arms widely giving a low, dark chuckle which oozed out the smirk that was hidden behind the mask. "Isn't it obvious? We need to draw them out. By force. Send out Hidan and Kazuku."

This was it. The moment that Nagato had been carefully waiting for the one time where Tobi presented himself to be utterly vulnerable, unfortunately, he was unsure of whether or not he'd be able to finish him off. There was no telling what the masked man held up his sleeves nor the extent of his abilities. The only abilities that Nagato was even remotely aware was Tobi's tangibility, witnessing countless times of the man walking through techniques and people, coming out of fights without even the tiniest of scratches on him along with several strange jutsu's that could have been consider myths on their own. However, he wasn't a slacker when it came to his arsenal. After training under his family, perhaps he had the upper hand.

Not that Nagato had much of a choice. He had resolved to return in order to eliminate the threat to his family. Even if it meant losing his own life in the process he was sure as hell going to take Tobi down with him.

With that the battle began.

(4)

The trip back to where the compound had been not only rocky and uncomfortable, expectedly Ash and his two cousins had not reacted to the bombshell that Lance had dropped on them, their shocked gazes remained before steadily going through several other expressions again. Needless to say the three had not anticipated the responsibility being thrust upon their shoulders. Of course, it was fair but, still took them out of the loop. However how would they even begin? The beginning was such an obvious answer, that's where everything started. Personally, Ash thought it'd be better if they had talked things over and at least tested them thoroughly before doing anything.

One of the first things that they definitely had to do was check them for their chakra natures. Between the three of them; Ash had fire while Naruto had wind and lastly, Harry had water chakra. Not that it mattered what natures the others had, it was merely a stepping stone for how to begin their training.

A wave of irritation washed over him. Was this how Professor Oak felt back in the day? He could already see the amount of problems and work that was going to poured into everything.

'How are we even going to explain this?' Ash thought massaging his temple, thankfully being in front of the crowd allowed him to keep his face hidden from them. He was glad that they had gained approval from his father, Clair and Elder Shigure and were able to inform their friends of the situation that was at hand, yet, had that been really the right thing for them to do? Just a little while ago they had been normal every day people and now, they were going to become soldiers; even if they were doing it willingly, it still didn't feel right to him at all.

What was done was done. There was nothing that Ash could do and simply accept what had happened. Just as they said before they needed as much help as they possibly could get as none of them could afford to turn a potential ally away.

Harsh murmurs echoed quietly through his ears amongst Lance and Shigure that were barely coherent between the quick and sharpness of the conversations, it seemed like they were arguing. Over what? Ash was unable to tell. He pushed the thoughts to the back of his head upon entering the large room; which now had several bunk beds each up against the wall tightly with enough room to allow the newest additions enough space to move around.

Why where they being brought here?

"This is where you five will be staying in the mean time for your own safety and to keep a track of you," Lance calmly explained not bothering to sugar-coat anything opening his eyes in a distant manner keeping up the professional appearance. "As we have said earlier you will be able to roam along as you are with someone." Gesturing towards the three slowly, and nodded back to the five.

"Cozy," Sirius remarked flatly glancing around briefly before landing back on the red-haired man.

Volkner snorted shortly. "I can feel the love."

"Quite. Be glad were providing you room and board during your stay. If we did things the traditional way you'd be dead," Clair hissed coldly throwing the two a frigid stare. "Not that I'd object to starting." Her smile matched her eyes.

"Enough." Shigure cut sharply sending her a look as the woman bowed her head ashamed. "They are our guests and allies Clair; mind your tongue!"

She flinched visibly firmly staring at the ground. "I apologize Elder Shigure. It will not happen again."

"See to it that it does not. We did not raise you to be impolite and rash," The elder further scowled her lowly looking none too impressed, the gleam of fatigue and tiredness had not gone unnoticed by the group. It was nothing new since Clair was well known for her stubborn and short tempered nature, in the past she had a habit of sending trainers that beat her in a battle to the Dragon's Den in order to further prove themselves usually either failing or leaving the town heading somewhere else to get their badge from somewhere else. When wind had reached the Johto League, Lance let his disapproval be known completely thrashing the woman in battle; humiliating her completely in front of the entire town in order to get his point across. Consequently, Clair learned her lesson rather quickly.

Though Ash found her attitude towards the others completely reasonable since they were outsiders and even though he knew that they were trustworthy, Clair didn't. Hopefully that would change in time but she wasn't the only one that would like share the opinion.

Hopefully nothing would happen.

"What do you want us to do in the mean time? Don't we still need to get permission from the other heads and all that?" Naruto questioned hurriedly looking around anxiously moving around unable to stay in place.

Claire was the one to answer. "That is the norm, yes. However, since a clan elder and the Head of the family both approved there really is no needed to involve them further in this matter-"

"However," Shigure cut in swiftly with a disapproving frown. "That does not mean that they are not to be informed of the matters that have transpired."

"Bunch of stuffy old coots if you asked me," Sirius murmured to the side not bothering to hide his disdain of political circles.

The elder now focused his attention onto Sirius piercing a look keeping the frown. "While I fully understand your sentiments and you are, of course, entitled to your own opinion. I must ask of you to please reframe from making these known."

"I make no promises." The wizard returned neutrally keeping his expression stoic giving a sharp nod at him.

"That's all I ask," Shigure replied with a stiff smirk realizing that it was pointless to argue with the man. "It's been a rather long day for us all I highly suggest that we all get some sleep until the morning." As he gave a short wave and left the room entirely with Lance and Clair tagging not too far behind.

A long, tiring yawn escaped from Naruto's mouth as the blond stretched his arms revealing his fatigue. "Shigure-ojiisan has the right idea I can barely keep my eyes open." Letting out another yawn only this time he had the decency to use his arm to cover his mouth.

Sirius looked ready to rebuke the comment but quickly relented upon the look he had received from Harry much to Ash's relief. "Not like we have much of a choice now does it?"

"Hey, man bunk beds are awesome! We never get to have these back at the gym," Brawly defended.

"I think we're all a little high strung from today's little events let's just all hit the hay for now, shall we?" Norman attempted to placate the others calmly.

Morty nodded solemnly. "I agree. Getting some rest will do us all some good."

"...I could use the sleep Flint woke me up earlier today," Volkner murmured under his breath disinterested and proceeded to making his way towards the top bunk of the beds without hesitation.

Sirius raised an eyebrow. "What time do you usually wake up?"

"Either 1PM or 2PM," answered the stoic blond passing out onto the bed without a moment's warning.

Ash exchanged a knowing look between Naruto and Harry as the three sent the sleeping blond a smirk. If Volkner honestly thought that he was going to be sleeping the days away he was in for a rather rude awakening once morning came along, for the mean time, they would allow him to continue his routine.

"Alright then," Harry waved to the five. "Sleep well we'll see you all in the morning-"

"We'll be having a nice and long talk." Sirius interjected not unkindly inclined his head with a dark gaze that nearly made Harry flinch with guilty.

Harry nodded stiffly murmuring a soft. "Yeah..."

"Anyway night you guys," Ash hurriedly gave a short good night making a dash towards the outside pushing Harry and Naruto along with him on the way out. He could tell that thing had started to become uncomfortable, at least trying to avoid further conflicts for the time being was the least Ash could for his cousin until morning since none of them were particularly in the mood to deal with drama. By some luck if Sirius and the others cooled off that would be at least some form of a miracle in the least.

Harry talked about Sirius often during their training being something of a father to him something that Ash never had. In a way Ash couldn't help but envy the wizard for having at least a somewhat fatherly figure in his life, he knew that the feeling was childish and ignored it for the most part as Ash wasn't not entirely blind to the suffering and pain that his two cousins had been forced to endure during their younger years. Growing up in Pallet Town hadn't been an exact walk in the park as his mother and himself had been on the receiving end of verbal abuse from the rest of the town's people, while it had eventually subsided during the years, neither of them had forgotten. They would forgive but never forget.

Admittedly, Ash didn't know much about his cousin's past and vice versa to his own past. Not because they were hiding anything rather it never seemed overly important to discuss, the past was the past and couldn't be changed but now they weren't alone. Not anymore. They had each other.

And no one would take that away from them.

(5)

The next morning started abruptly with the three being summoned to the meeting room earlier then they were usual worried that something that happened the three found themselves waiting nervously upon entering; Lance's current state had them worried as the man masked his emotions staring forwardness towards the wall unmoving. It was a rare occurrence due to his easy-going nature, outside of missions and dealing with family, the mere fact he was in Head mode spoke volumes to them. He didn't even greet them verbally only nodding at them before returning to the wall.

What had happened last night?

It was not long after that Elder Shigure had entered the room along with Koga and Nagato; whom looked worse for wear, his clothes were torn and had a swollen black eye and sported several cuts alongside his face. The three each took their seats within the room.

"W...what's going on why are we here, did something happen?" Naruto asked quickly, his words nearly slurred together with worry, eyes darting between the three.

Lance held up his hand. "Calm down." His words were sharp cutting like a knife, nodding at Nagato. "Debrief them."

"When you three were escorting Bruno and the others, Konan and I infiltrated one of the main Akatsuki's bases. We directly engaged in combat with the leader of the Akatsuki; Tobi." Nagato began, eyes firmly locked on the three. "The battle took several hours due to some of the members joining Tobi's side, which we were able to dispatch after several tries I was finally able to take out Tobi and destroy his Sharingan-"

"He had a SHARIGAN?!" Naruto exclaimed leaping out of the seat in shock.

"From the reports that Nagato has brought us this 'Tobi' went under the alias of Madara Uchiha, a fellow founder of Konoha and ally to the Uzumaki clan. But this has been proven to be a false claim which is why we brought you here, Naruto." Shigure answered, sliding a photo towards the blonde. "Can you identitfy this man?"

Naruto frowned leaning forward inspecting the picture of a spiky haired man with a disfigured left side and a normal right side one of his eyes had a Sharingan. It was as clear as day. But how? Hadn't Sasuke and Itachi been the last and only Uchiha left, who was this guy anyway? He had never seen him before. Not even in the records. Placing the photo down shook his head. "He has a Sharingan alright, but I don't know who he is." Naruto admitted feeling frustrated and confused.

"There was something else that we've managed to recover. An Uzumaki scroll," Lance stated pulling from his side to reveal a worn out scroll that was held together by a black strap and a strange looking cube that held it together; on the cube was a strange diamond like hole located in the very centre.

A nagging feeling tugged at the back of Naruto's head as he stared at the scroll curiously grasping it in his hand examining the object closely. It looked very familiar. His hand moved up towards his neck gripping the zipper, pulling it down to reveal the green pendent that dangled from his neck; glowing brightly underneath the rays of the lighting. Carefully he played with the pendent looking straight back towards the scroll, the nagging feeling grew even stronger as each moment passed. His throat grew dry upon wrapping his palm around the green shining pendent, tearing it off of his neck roughly proceeded to bring it close to the cube-like seal. Shutting his eyes tightly he started to make the pendent glow brightly.

"Naruto what are you doing stop it!" Lance chided harshly.

"Naruto! Stop!" Shigure's voice exclaimed attempting to stop him.

However, it was far too late as the blonde began to steadily channel his chakra and began to lower the pendent towards the empty slot, ignoring the cries of protest from the others. He lowered the pendent straight into the slot as a giant burst of energy flung Naruto backwards, straight into Harry and Ash causing the couch to flip over. Lance had been thrown straight to the back wall, Nagato managed to grip onto the ground to prevent himself from being hurtled further as he grabbed onto the back of Shigure's shirt, struggling to hold on as the outburst continued to run rampant effectively destroying everything within the room growing stronger with each passing moment.

"W-what the hell is going on here?!" Ash cried barely able to keep his eyes open, forcing to use his arm as a shield not that it helped much.

Harry didn't say anything at all but kept his eyes narrowed watching the streams of light and chakra swarm all over the room critically.

Finally the outburst began to die down slowly giving sight to three silhouettes, blurry and unable to fully see. Very slowly they began to become clearer revealing a long batch of brown hair, a hint of blue like armor and lastly a long white coat that hovered in the air; it wasn't until several moments after when the three figures had finally visible to them.

The first male was a tall man with the brunet hair wearing a very stern look eyeing the place distrustfully, lips pressed together taking in the surroundings. His body was covered with dark red armor; two pieces were on his shoulders acting as pads while the rest were placed at his chest downwards but revealed black clothing underneath allowing him flexibility during battle; his legs were bare with the exception of the black pants and a pair of _geta. _His straight back stature spoke volumes of his power and personality.

The one next to him had pure silver hair with red marks along his cheeks wearing a strange helmet as he looked around, more bored than anything else. His eyes remained narrowed refusing to let his guard down, like the other male he wore similar armor and black clothing; however, it was dark blue opposed to the man's dark red and had white fur alongside the neck.

The last and final man had spiky blonde hair and bright blue eyes appearing confused and utterly bewildered, blinking slowly as if he was trying to figure out what exactly was going on. He wore a long pure white coat with red flames on the back having a Konoha band around his forehead decked out in a Jounin vest and the standard shinobi attire. Located near his waiste was a bag filled with obscure looking kunai, where his hand moved towards carefully in what appeared to be a reflex before relaxing as he seemed to grasp the fact that they were not the enemy.

They were without a doubt the Shodaime, Nidaime and Yondaime Hokages.

(6)

Chapter 6-End.

And so the chapter ends with a cliff hanger, aren't I just evil? My lovely and beta have been planning the revival of the three kages since before posting Rise of the Uzumaki, though we could never figure out when would be the right time for it to happen so I hope that all of you readers enjoyed it! In regards to that fact I would like to thank every single one of your reviewers, if it wasn't for you guys this fic probably wouldn't be around...which is why I'm bringing this up.

My beta and I have come to an agreement that if this chapter doesn't receive good feedback that it will be taken down and re-written. So when you write your review please tell me your thoughts in regards to this chapter, what you like, what you disliked and where you believe you think it's going.

Thank you!

Harry's harem list: Volkner, Bill, Minato, Genma, Tobirama, Asuma, Squall, Rod, Tidus, Hisagi, Dojima, Angeal and Steven.

Ash's harem: Morty, Flint, Riley, Shikaku, Noland, Seifer, Shears, Ashido, Inoichi, Martial Arts Turk (male), Drake, Hashirama and Tenzou/Yamato.

Naruto's harem: Brawly, Shikamaru, Kiba, Ichigo, Byakuya, Shinjiro, Irvine, Two Guns, Charlie, Bruno, Genesis, Raidou, and Viktor.

We HAVE been playing with the idea of Sirius getting his own harem of guys; but we are on the fence, if you readers LIKE or DISLIKE the idea please tell us your reasons why.

Until next time!

And make sure to have a Merry Christmas or whatever holiday you celebrate and a Happy New Year!


End file.
